Concerto for a Rainy Day (On Hiatus)
by BEAT1999
Summary: At the end of his life, Eren Yeager is given a new assignment: to find and return all shifter powers to their progenitor. For that, he is sent to a new reality, one eight years behind his own. With this new mission, Eren will try to take a better path, to save those he cares for this time. M rating for violence, language, and themes.
1. Prologue: The Deal

**Disclaimer: I do not own SNK in any way, shape or form. All rights are reserved by their due correspondants.**

**Hello, and welcome. This is my first multi-chapter story, so let us hope you find this as enjoyable to read as it was for me to write. This little project was born when I came across BladeOfRain's Across Realities, but decided to do my personal spin on it.**

**I feel the need to state that this story will further and further deviate from the original storyline as it goes on. And this story will contain EreMika, it won't be the main focus, but it will be there, so you've been warned.**

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**Concerto For A Rainy Day**

**858, somewhere in Wall Maria**

The gray pallet the sky had chosen for the day was fit for what was about to occur, that was the thought running through his mind as he finished cleaning the small cabin lost in the woods. There was not much to do, as the worst part of the mess had been taken care of when he first mustered the courage to enter the abandoned home a few weeks back. The bookcases had been cleaned, the kitchen was pristine, what remained of the clothes were washed along with the dolls in the girl's room, the beds' sheets were changed. Overall, he would say he was leaving the small house immaculate. The only exceptions being the garden, which had been reclaimed by the malaise long ago. And, of course, the yet still visible stains of blood at the entrance of the home, which had with years been absorbed into the very nature of the planks.

Standing up as he ended his breakfast, Eren Yeager washed the small bowl and put it back with the others. Afterwards, he went outside and sat next to the door, he took out his revolver and started cleaning it. 'Always keep it clean' the still distinctly nasal echo lingered from when he got it as he looked inside the barrel, 'you never know when you'll need it.' Except he now knew for sure he was going to use it today, one final time.

Pushing the thought away, Eren reloaded the weapon when he finished cleaning it and went inside again. He gave one final inspection of the cabin. As usual, he finished by checking the room of the girl, the room he had chosen when he installed himself inside the structure. Sitting in the bed, he took in just the condition the place was.

He was surprised to say the least when he stumbled across the small home. He would have never guessed it would still be in good condition, especially with the years of abandonment it experienced. As he worked on cleaning the cabin, it became clear it would probably still stand for some years, maybe even a decade or two. Not that he could say he was surprised, _the Ackermans never to things half-assed _he thought with melancholy as his hand found its way to the scarf tightly wrapped around his neck. The irony of the gesture had never gone unnoticed, but Eren never commented or thought much of it; simply put, he was too tired to do so. Slowly he started unwrapping the scarf and started folding it. He was not going to wear it today; he didn't want to put a hole through it.

As the scarf was neatly put in the bed, next to the pillows, he shifted his gaze to the doll looking out the window. Taking hold of her he watched it slowly. It was a simply doll in the form a girl, wearing a dark blue dress, with black hair, black buttons for eyes and a smile sewed on her face. The muscles of his throat tighten. This is not how he wanted things to end.

He embraced the doll one more time as he felt his eyes tearing up. For what felt like some minutes, Eren remained still with the doll buried beneath his chin, the last years of his life playing incessantly in his mind, in how poor a notes did his friendships were before ending abruptly by his own hand, his own failure. It was a constant sting, no matter how much time had passed, it was still there, even now when it was all over.

Setting the doll on top of the scarf, he made his way out of the cabin, locking the door as he left, making a small detour to check all the windows were indeed still in good shape, he didn't want any wild animals sneaking in and ruining this landmark. He walked over to a small hill not too far from there. In spite of being surrounded by the nearby forest, the hill was empty except for one big oak standing on the top. A bitter taste filled his mouth, at times he could almost see a young girl happily run around through this part, lying in relaxation beneath the oak's shadow, this was a corner nature created for it to be filled with laughter. Instead on top of the hill, covered by the shadow, lied two rocks.

As he closed in to his final destination, the carvings he himself put on the rocks were starting to become readable. Eren felt his body feeling heavier and heavier. He then stood still next to the two stones, his gaze lost in the memories the one on the right emanated.

In Loving Memory of Armin Arlert

A Great Friend and Dreamer

835-855

The image of a young child of golden head and longing eyes sitting by the side of the river reading a book started to flood his mind. The boy growing into a smart and capable soldier, in spite of his own self-doubt, becoming a truly reliable comrade. The image then shifted to one of the same boy, now an adult, being betrayed by his childhood friend, the hurt in his eyes chasing Eren ever since. All of that for naught, as the plan failed. They lost. They were captured, locked up, broken and subsequently sacrificed for the glory and delight of Marley. Eren remembered the flame of hope that shined in Armin's eyes, a hope for things to grow for the better. Armin, always looking for the best outcome. How he tried desperately to cling to the possibility of peace between the Eldians and the rest of the world. At the time, Eren had been frustrated by that attitude from his friend, but when that hope vanished from the blond, he was unnerved. Seeing him in the corner of his cell, looking devoid of everything was devastating. And then there was the day they took him upstairs… a day Eren avoids from thinking in particular.

He knelt in front of the tombstones, his legs no longer being capable of holding his composure. Eren hadn't been the same since his plans fell apart before him that fateful day almost four years ago, he recognized that. The fight that once had been so synonymous with himself drowned in a pool of blood in Shiganshina. Slowly, his gaze shifted to the other tombstone, the one closer to the bark of the oak.

In Loving Memory of Mikasa Ackerman

A Great Friend and Soldier. Loyal until the end

835-854

"_Mikasa, I've always hated you." _Those were the last words Eren ever directed at her. He still had nightmares about that afternoon, of the tears leaking from her cheeks when he crushed her heart. And for good reason, having to lie to the one closest to you is already hard, and it only intensified with lying being done in such a vile way. His teeth started gritting against each other. She didn't deserve any of that, he came to realize just too late, nor did she ask for it. He remembered Mikasa once, many years ago, talking longingly about leading a life of peace. Still, she followed him. Mikasa stood by him even when she probably shouldn't have. She followed him to her death. She had no reason, the Ackerman-bond had been broken, and still she remained by his side, she fought and died for him. It was only by seeing her lifeless body in the streets that he realized just the extent of how much of an ass he had been.

The part that particularly stung, even to this day, at the tail end of his life, was that he never told her the truth about what he felt for her. Always arguing that there were more pressing matters at hand, or that the moment wasn't right, all for never getting the opportunity. His only real effort being when they first inflitrated Marley, and even then it was mostly thwarted by their inexperience. In the end, with their last talk being one of lies, deceit and heartbreak, he wondered what her last thoughts were. Were they ones of spite? Resignation perhaps? Or maybe even ones of still unyielding loyalty? Eren often sought comfort in the last option, only to find the bitter truth that it didn't matter, as Mikasa was still dead. She was on the receiving end of a lucky hit by Reiner, he was later told, combined with a stray bullet in the chest was all it took. All on top of him not being present at the time, it all was just so unjust, so merciless, so… needless to say he had never been the same since.

Wiping the tears from his eyes he stood up. Something in him lamented having chosen the tombs of his closest friends as the place it will end, in spite of how much he argued to himself that there were no bodies in the tombs. It was too late to change his plan, regardless. He occasionally felt how the curse of Ymir started pumping into his veins, he could never put it into words as to how he could be so sure, it was a matter that one simply knew when it presented itself, _a simple realization that death is at your door_he mused bitterly.

He looked down one more time to the two graves. It took him almost a fortnight in preparing the small monument. Had he had more time, he would have gladly made enough for all the others. They all deserved to be remembered, even if in the form of a grave in a barren, deserted island.

He performed the old salute he was taught all those years back. How long had it been since he had done it? When was the last time he had used a piece of ODM gear? He sadly couldn't tell. It had been so long, so much had happened. The last eight years starting to blur and crash onto one another.

The memories of the few months after his graduation became the most prominent, however. It was all so simple back then. No Eldians, no Marleyans, no curse of Ymir. It was only humanity and the titans. It was all a lie, from the very beginning yes, but it still meant that there was indeed hope for something resembling a normal life would appear for them once it was all over. The melancholy and resignation running amok as his hand slowly reached for the revolver.

Without breaking the salute, Eren took the gun and slowly turned it towards the base of his neck. That was were spine C6 and C7 were located, the ones were his titan powers resided. The bullets were hollow in the head, so it meant that they would either deform and get stuck inside the spine, making the healing impossible, or blow it outright. Either way it went, it would securely destroy the source of his ill, he was certain. Not even him having all nine shifter powers would stop him from finally falling over the precipice.

At least there was the comfort that this evil was going to end with him, right here, right now.

As he pulled the hammer of the revolver, his mind serenely tormented. His eyes shot to the sky, searching helplessly for answers one more time. Eren often wondered if there was an afterlife. He wanted to believe so, as that would mean that it was possible to see his friends once more. But he knew he had done too much damage to be deserving of such blessing. Closing to the world, the lament for the loss of his freedom, his world, but most importantly his loved ones clung desperately onto his heart. _Levi, Hanji, Sasha, Connie, Jean, Armin… Mikasa…_

"I'm sorry" he muttered to the winds as the tears ran across his cheeks. He didn't hear the gunshot firing, merely feeling his body falling over the abyss.

* * *

Slowly, his eyes started to open. The world around him too blurry to make out, Eren let out a groan, the soft feeling of sand running from his fingers as his hands clenched into fists. An ominous feeling washed through his body.

As his vision started fixing, Eren found himself staring into a starry night, lost in an infinity of sand, and a large beam of energy shooting into the heavens, taking the form of a massive tree standing imposingly over the entirety of his field of view. He was in the Paths.

His hands clenched into fists, he was caught after all. Not even in the end he was allowed to take his own way out. Was he supposed to live all thirteen years of this disgusting condition? Was he forced to continue sleeping every night amongst the screams of his companions? But above all, he was frustrated that he had no agency over his death, had he been a slave to his condition all along? He started screaming, his body shaking uncontrollably. Kicking and punching indiscriminately, Eren raged for long moments, tears running freely.

Finally, he collapsed onto the sand, weeping.

A light started shining on him, slowly he looked up to see what appeared to be a mass of nerves, headed by a strange orange orb, willowing towards him. He stared as the being approached to him. As it was within mere meters of him, it started moving upwards, rising into the air, the orb always shining its lights upon Eren.

"_Stand, Hunter" _a voice in his head rang. Cautiously Eren complied, taken aback by the strangeness of the moment. _"I noticed that thou hast taken control o'er all nine of my children, and deliberately thou erased them from thy plane. Whatever is thy reason?"_

Eren tried to wrap his mind around what the entity said. It referred to itself as the father of nine things he controlled. It dawned on Eren that it could only be referring to the nine shifter powers. That could only mean… "You are the Earth Devil…" he said. In spite of its lack of anatomy, the being appeared perplexed.

"_I am what I am, no more, no less, as is the case of all beings under the light of XipeTotec" _it said cryptically. _"Nevertheless, I had thee brought to me is to pay for the murder my children" _it continued_. "I had them given to thy kind after sealing a deal with the female who hath contact with my being, returning me to this place from my banishment eons ago. Accorded it was that my children would return to me upon her death, something that did not happen, as she became chained to the will of some force back in thy plane. For eons hath I waited for them to return, but now thou destroyed them from ever being capable" _as it talked into his mind_. _The being continued to elongate, twisting and turning around Eren's body, with new membranes growing out of the shaft as it kept wrapping itself around him. Completely encapsulated in it, the light went to stand, mere centimeters from his face. _"Care to explain your reasoning before judgement, Hunter?"_

"They have no place in the world" Eren muttered after some hesitation, remembering Annie's last words before being consumed. He looked up to the orb, staring into the infinity of its light. "They have fed the wrath of my kind, so many have fallen as they were used in the power plays of us humans, I saw it as my duty to put an end to it" he spoke. The orb remained still, its light fluctuating steadily in its own sense of rhythm.

"_That thee rationale is then?" _it asked.

"Yes" he answered a bit exasperated. "Now, kill me." He closed his eyes, awaiting his end. As the seconds turned into minutes, Eren opened them to see the light still boring into his being.

"_That may very well hath been my intention in the beginning" _it said with macabre interest, one that came with scheming. _"But now I see that thou may still possess use in the return of my children."_

"_The wisdom XipeTotec is infinite as is the skin with which heformed the plain where we the Tezcatlipocas are to inhabit. This skin so vast it is that it hath touching points with that of other realities. Realities, all tracing back to the corpse of the once great Ometeotl, an unknowable number of realities, ever growing in number. And there exists meeting points between them. It would seem that now I hath a more valuable way to use thee."_

Eren was wary of where this Tezcatlipoca was going. Nevertheless, he had really no way to resist it in any real regard, considering that, according to it, the nine shifters were indeed destroyed. So there was really nothing to resist it, in any regard. But still he should be wary, he argued. "What would you have do?" he asked.

"_I shall grant thee with a power capable of returning my children back to me if thee hath their physical form consumed, and with that new ability settle you in a reality in which their Hunter suffered an, shall we say, untimely end. Thy settling in this new reality shall have Genesis consume the two children that thee hath from the beginning. Thy mission from then shall be that of finding the other seven and bring them home. And it also gives thee the possibility to atone for what thee consider to be failings. Be helping me, thy help thyself."_

Eren listened, taken aback by the proposition. Being able to go back… He would be lying if he said he didn't wish to return, to do everything he could to save his friends. But now that there was the opportunity, he hesitated. Returning back. Was that really possible? But more importantly, did he even deserve it? As much as Eren wanted to save his friends, he feared that he could actually only hurt them more. A humming sound snapped him out of his thoughts.

"_Thou hesitates" _the being acknowledged.

"I… don't deserve a second opportunity" he looked down.

"_Thou is not being given 'a second opportunity,' Hunter. Thou is being commanded to send me my children back. Anything outside of that, is no concern of mine. I care not how thee return my children back; I care only that it is done" _it said impersonally. _"If thou wishes death, once thy mission is complete, it would be within my reach to grant thee that. Nevertheless, that is all for after thee succeeds. Eyes on the target, Hunter, not on the horizon."_

Before Eren could even process what was said, a membrane impaled itself into his left eye. As he screamed in pain, falling to the ground, the being unwrapped itself from him. Until it was the starting spinal cord and a few nerves birthing from it. _"Failure is not an option, Hunter. May XipeTotec bless your path. Now go and fulfill your intent" _it said.

Eren's body was still jerking all over the ground as he noticed that he was withering. His hands peeling, turning into sand. And then followed his arms. Equally so his legs. And then there was darkness.

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**So that was it for the prologue of this story.**

**I will say that english is not my first tongue, so it may be possible for a few errors to have slipped here or there (especially in regards to the way the Earth Devil speaks), other than that I'm fairly pleased with this prelude. Tomorrow Friday I'll be releasing the first proper chapter, and after that I will be uploading a chapter a week at least for the following 3 weeks, as those chapters are mostly done and just need pulishing. After that, I really cannot promise a steady schedule, but I'll try my best to publish a couple of times per month.**

**Now, as for my treatment of the Earth Devil. I've always been of the idea that even divine beings would have their mythology. Their own rituals and customs, but, due to their nature, they would be alien in comparison to our own. And being no secret that SNK makes a lot of references to Nordic mythology, I thought "what would be alien to the vikings?" And immediately I thought of the Aztecs. So I pulled a few elements, mostly just names, and had them being the Earth Devil's own mythology, which might or might be true, but serves them to explain their situation. So, yeah...**

**As always, I hope you enjoyed this and stick around for the ride. All reviews are welcomed and appreciated.**


	2. I: New Beginnings

**Disclaimer: I do not own SNK in any way, shape or form.**

**Smoking is bad and not endorsed. Eren can regenerate his lungs, you can't.**

**A/N at the end.**

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**850**

He had been sitting in the chair for at least the last hour. Erwin had asked him and Hanji to stay put until he came with Supreme Commander Zackly so he could see first-hand the 'incident.' Two days had passed since the event, still being fresh in Levi's mind.

It was just after the trial of the cadet who could turn into a Titan, _Eren _he thought, _that was his name._ It seemed that all had gone as expected. Levi was sent to beat the poor sod to a pulp in the middle of the courthouse, as a show that the Survey Corps was more than capable of keeping him on a leash as they used him for the retaking of Wall Maria. When Zackly gave them his approval for they keeping him, he was dragged off the courtroom, followed closely by Erwin, Hanji, Mike and himself, to the lower levels where they would wait for the boy to wake up so they could proceed accordingly.

"I have to admit that went more smoothly than anticipated" said Erwin. "I honestly believed Nile would protest a little more."

"Well, after Levi's display, there was little room to argue against our case" said Hanji carefully before turning to the still unconscious body. "You were a little too hard on him, don't you think?." Levi then simply crossed his arms.

"Tch, you said it yourself, he can regenerate from any injury. There was no point holding back."

"Has he started regenerating, by the way?" asked Erwin. Hanji started inspecting the unconscious. After some seconds, her face grew grim, then it happened.

"He doesn't have any pulse" she put her fingers just under his nose. "He's not breathing either!"

After that, everything was chaos. The boy was transported to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead in the early hours of the next day. So far no one outside of them, the doctors, and now Zackly knew that the Rogue Titan had perished, but that wouldn't stay so for long.

Levi for his part was not taking the matter well. _Damn it, I swore I was done killing humans _he thought darkly. Shaking the thought away, he looked to see Erwin and Zackly arriving. They got to a carriage and moved to the hospital, where the boy's body was still waiting to get cremated.

"This is, an unexpected turn" commented Zackly as they rode through town.

"I still don't understand what happened" commented Hanji with distress. "He was supposed to regenerate from all injuries." Hanji was hoping to use the boy as the breakthrough for her experiments to understand the nature of titans. His death pulled that hope dead on her tracks. But aside from that, though she wouldn't admit it, it also put a few things on perspective about her methods. She had done nothing, of course. But then again, that might be the issue, there was this kid, no more than fifteen, being beaten into an inch of his life, eventually dying, and she just watched on, thinking of what experiments she would perform once it was her turn to play with him. She felt dirty.

Erwin on, his part, was taking it much better than his two subordinates. This wouldn't be the first time he had indirectly sentenced someone so young to death and would not be the last, being commander of the Survey Corps signified that was part of the job. For as cynical as it sounded. He was mostly disappointed in the loss of such an opportunity for the retaking of Wall Maria as the Rogue Titan was. _At least we got the clue about the basement of his house in Shiganshina _he thought to himself, as he bargained about the ordeal.

The group continued silently on its way to the hospital. Watching the city go on with its daily routine, Levi couldn't help but be irritated at how lightly the people of Royal Capital were going on about their days, as if there wasn't a titan invasion not too far from here. _These people will be the last of humanity when Wall Rose falls, with that we'll definitely go extinct _he thought with contempt. He never like being in Wall Sina, and right now his mood was not one to tolerate the disconnect these people had with the reality of the world they were caught in.

As they reached the hospital, they were greeted almost immediately by a doctor with a bewildered look on their faces. "We're so glad you're here" he said nervously. "You see, about half an hour ago, something, eh, interesting happened to Mr. Yeager."

"What do you mean?" asked Erwin. "What happened?"

"Mr. Yeager, well, he um, woke up."

This instantly threw everything else going on in the minds of the four officers out the window. Immediately they requested to see him, to which the doctor readily complied. They were taken to a room on the second floor of the building, being stop at the gate.

"I insist you to be gentle. He just woke up and, even though he didn't show any sign of internal damage, it's still too early to know for sure" the doctor said before leaving them.

As they entered, they were faced with a small, simple room. It consisted of one individual bed parallel to a small window, a table with a mirror opposite to the bed and one nightstand. But what preoccupied them was the young man in that room.

Indeed, there he was. Eren Yeager, alive, sitting on the bed with his back to the door. He was wearing a simple hospital gown. He turned around to look at them. His eyes were swollen and his lips were pressed together. Erwin and Zackly approached him slowly.

"Hello Eren, it's good to see you awake" said Erwin carefully. Eren nodded to him absently.

"Commander Erwin" he acknowledged. He turned to Zackly. "Supreme Commander, why are you here?" he asked, turning to eye all of them. _Well fuck me _thought Levi wide-eyed,_ he actually came back. _There was no way this was an impostor.

"Well, you gave us quite a scare back there, you see" Zackly said taking the initiative. "After your trial, you were taken to the side, where we discovered you didn't heal from your wounds. You were actually declared dead yesterday."

"My trial?" Eren asked with a confused look on his face. When realization hit him, he gasped, muttering a few to himself the others couldn't hear. He looked up to them with an expression which was hard to pin for Levi. "Oh, I remember now." He was massaging his forehead.

"It seems that this whole debacle was just a misunderstanding" Zackly said to Erwin. "I assume you will proceed as if this didn't happen in the first place then. Or shall we have a new hearing?"

"There won't be no need for that" Erwin dismissed the offer. "He's already within our jurisdiction, we can take care of him."

"Very well then. Then I shall take my leave. I have many other affairs to look to." Zackly gave his goodbyes and good will wishes to Eren before departing. The four people remaining stood still, in silence, for some time. It was once again Erwin who broke the silence.

"Eren, how are you feeling?"

"Muscles are numb… And my eyesight is a bit funny."

"Really let me see" offered Hanji. Eren nodded and she got close. As she got close she became very suspicious as to what was going on. His left eye had the iris change colour from an emerald green to icy, almost pale blue. She knew that eyes tended to lose colour when blinded, but she suspected this might be something else. "Can you see with your left eye?" she asked to confirm her suspicions.

"I can, though it is a bit blurry, and a lot of colours are muted" he answered.

"Alright, then."

"What is it?" asked Erwin.

"He lost his vision partially on that eye." The other two looked on, digesting the news.

"How bad is it?" asked Levi, speaking for the first time. Having good vision was almost a requirement for a member of the Survey Corps. As the use of ODM gear required a sharp vision to avoid smashing oneself into a tree.

"It's too early to call" Hanji answered. "We would need a few tests to confirm the extent of the damage. And whether or not is it permanent."

"You think that injury might not heal" asked Erwin.

"He seems in almost perfect shape outside of this. There's no trace of any other injury. So this one might heal in time, though again, it's too early to call." The commander and captain listened, nodding the new information.

"I guess that'll have to do for the moment" Erwin said. "Now, as to other matters. Eren, do you remember that we would put you under captain Levi's supervision. But, considering what happened, we can also put you under the command of either Hanji or Mike" he explained. The young soldier listened before quickly shaking his head.

"There's no need for that. I'll go under captain Levi's squad" he said turning his now mismatched gaze to the commander's, there was a new, eerie feeling into his gaze, Erwin felt a chill run through his spine. Eren gave a small smile. "I'm sure the captain meant no harm."

After that, the conversation was spend mostly working on the details for Eren's move into Squad Levi. It was decided that he would spend a couple more days in the hospital so he could receive a few tests to ensure his recovery was good enough to enter service. And his subsequent furtive movement towards the old headquarters where Levi and his squad would be waiting for him.

When the three senior members left, Eren let out a long sigh. He got up from the bed and directed himself to the small mirror hanging opposite to the bed. He stood there, watching his reflection for a long time.

He could hardly believe what he was witnessing. His reflection was not that of a broken, patchy-bearded, exhausted man; but rather the clean, short-haired, youthful look he had back in his younger days. With the exception of his eye, he was effectively the same as then. He felt like weeping. It worked, he was indeed sent back to a better time.

_So my trial has just happened_ he thought to himself, _it means all of it is yet to happen. _No one knew of Eldians, of Marleyans, of the origin of titans. No one, of course, except for himself and the other shifters. He muttered a curse, the time was one before of the 57th Expedition. Back before of the whole ordeal of the revelation of the basement, of Reiner and Berthold's betrayal, of Annie's self-imprisonment.

_Shit, what I'm going to do with Annie? _His hands clasped together while his head was overwhelmed with all the sudden new possibilities. Right now, Annie was yet to act as the Female Titan. Should he just kill her and prevent any of that? _Wouldn't be the first time I kill her_ he thought darkly.

"_These powers are horrific"_ Annie's voice echoed through his mind, the picture of her body kneeling on the ground where the burnt base of a cabin lied. _"They should be destroyed, never to be seen again." _Then it hit him, he was here because he had destroyed the nine shifters last time around, and the only reason he had done so was because Annie wished for their destruction. Therefore, Annie was in part responsible for being here, for his second opportunity. If things went well this time, it would mean she, in a matter of speaking, saved his life. Wasn't he then supposed to return the favor? To save her? Was that even possible? And how could he? It was all very frustrating!

His train of thought was stopped when he felt a sharp pain through his left hand. Looking down, he saw what appeared to be four claws coming out of his right one. All of a sudden, nothing was half as important as these sharp blades coming out of his fingers. He stared at them in fascination, pulling them from his other hand. When they emerged, he saw how the injuries starting to emit steam, as the healing started to take place. It took them about a couple of minutes for them to regenerate completely, much longer than he was used to.

_That's right _he remembered, _the Tezcatlipoca, I think that's what it called itself, explained that I'd be getting a new power, of course it's going to have some quirks. _A slower regeneration time was not what he would call a good quirk, but these claws coming out in his human body could certainly prove helpful. Eren wondered the extent of this new ability, and what other ones he had. Deciding that he would have to figure it out for himself. _It does cut through flesh and bone easily in any case _he assured himself.

He looked at the claws, focusing on them to retract. To his slight surprise, they did retract back, hiding in his flesh, he clenched his hand into a fist with the ease it was supposed to. To determine if his suspicion was true, he thought about them coming out, indeed they did. The small traces of a smirk appeared on his face. Having this power activating on command made it even more promising than it already was.

Satisfied for now, Eren went back to the bed, pinching his arm along the way, to finish convincing himself that this was not a lucid dream while he was bleeding out. As he laid, trying to rest some more, his thoughts reverted back to the general strangeness of this situation he managed to get himself caught into. Whilst he was now mostly sure this was indeed real, what bothered him mostly was his worthiness to this seeming gift. Thoughts and doubts that lingered well after he fell into the world of the unconscious.

* * *

_He was woken up by the sound of a gunshot. Looking up he saw the soldier guarding his cell lying on the floor, with blood pouring out of his forehead. A tall man with a long face came into view, taking the keys of the cell and opening it._

_"What is happening?" he asked to the man._

_"We convinced the Alpenians to join us in our breakout" the man answered._

_"So that's all the noise's about" he mumbled. The man then took a seat next to him on his bed._

_"There are some old tunnels in the abandoned wing of the prison, that's how we're getting out. But there's a hundred meters of open ground between our wing and that. We'll be open to them, especially with the Armored Titan nearby" the man said. "We need you."_

_He looked down. "What's the point?" He looked up to see that the man was staring at him._

_"I never thought I'd see you lying down with your thumb in your ass" the man said. "Look, everyone knows that this whole thing's been difficult for you, but right now you have to choose. Are you going to help me and Connie and get a chance at escaping, or stay here playing with that scarf until the Marleayns find someone to eat you."_

_He looked up to see the man. It was strange just how they had gone from bickering children, to true comrades, to know the man being his leader._

* * *

A couple of weeks have passed since he had woken up, now Eren was almost certain that this indeed was not a lucid dream.

Just about everything had gone just as it had the first time around. He was taken to the old headquarters of the Scouts, where he was inducted into Squad Levi. He met and acquainted himself with all four of its members, once again.

He felt really strange meeting them once again. Getting to see them introduce themselves all over again. Eld, Gunther, Oluo and Petra didn't live long enough last time; but Eren did get enough time with them to get acquainted with each one and their own quirks. Eld's sarcastic edge and his quasi-parental role in the squad made him quickly endearing. Gunther was still a professional through and through, always level-headed and goal-oriented, he was indeed an ideal soldier. Oluo remained as the self-confident and boasting comic relief of the group. And of course there was Petra and her never-ending faith in Levi. It all seemed to Eren both nostalgic and disturbing seeing them once again after their demise, a sensation he knew he would have to get used to.

The experiments the Survey Corps ran on him were essentially the same. Through those experiments he had found out that his new titan had also a quite useful perk, that of being able to turn at will. It was slightly relieving that no longer he would have to hurt himself whilst having a clear goal to be able to shift, but simply activating it. That small difference could make the difference in a battle.

Speaking of his new power. Its form was rather interesting. For starters, it was 16 meters tall. In appearance it held a slightly similar form to the Attack Titan. It had several armor-like hardened parts located in its elbows, shoulders, knees, shins and knuckles, with the ones of the knees and elbows ending in spikes. The blades he witnessed earlier coming out of his fingers were sticking out of his forearm when retracted, the skin of that hand was absent, making it look bright red in comparison with the rest of the body. However, the head was almost the biggest departure, with a mask made out of the hardened material covering the whole of the face and the top of the head, and a fabric beneath it covering the whole of the face and neck. The look of the mask was that of a face without mouth, save for the eyes, horns coming out of the forehead, right before the hairline, a thin hooked nose, and a sharp triangular chin. He also noted that its form always seemed to be panting, always inhaling and exhaling loudly.

Its regeneration, as noted earlier, was indeed slower. And he could only shift into it once per day. But, as a positive, it was significantly faster and more resilient than his previous Attack Titan.

Throughout his stay in the old HQ, Eren noted a slightly softer approach by both Levi and Hanji. It wasn't anything overtly obvious, but rather a more careful choice of words whenever they talked to him. He supposed that was to be expected after they killed him.

Speaking of that, Eren still hadn't decided on whether or not to tell them about his condition. Honestly, he hoped he never would. Of course, if he wanted to change things for the better, a crucial step would be to share his knowledge with the others, particularly with Erwin (having his planning and leading abilities would be a significant asset to everything regarding Marley); but he was still hesitant to share so, at least for the time being.

And the complete truth would be reserved for Mikasa and Armin, and them exclusively, that he decided, it was not up for debate.

A sense of excitement and foreboding came to him the day he was informed the position Levi Squad would have during the expedition. He remembered this day, today he would meet with his friends again. It didn't feel real. It shouldn't feel real.

He was done cleaning the stables, a task that he had forgotten just how much he hated, and walked outside whilst looking for a small pack inside of his jacket. As he approached the door where Oluo was keeping watch over him, he found what he was looking for. Putting the small, narrow roll of paper in his lips he turned to face him.

"Got some fire?" asked Eren. Oluo looked in his jacket, from which he pulled a small box of matches. Giving it to the younger man.

It had been a little difficult convincing Levi to allow him to get a bag of tobacco and a roll of paper, mostly because cigarettes were yet to be introduced in Paradis, and so, it was difficult to explain why he would want those two seeming random items. Nevertheless, he relented. As soon as he got them, Eren spent a good deal of that night with a small lamp in the basement, making the individual cigarettes.

Eren had picked up smoking in Marley shortly after escaping from the prison where and the rest survivors of the scouts were taken. Wandering alone through the endless farmland of central Marley, jumping from small town to small town. He would ask for rides occasionally, and in one of those instances, the driver, a young man who couldn't be over his late teens, gave him what was left of his pack of cigarettes and a lighter to "keep him warm at night." He had started smoking regularly soon thereafter.

And him running with the outlaws of the Meliora, all of them chain smokers themselves, and his time as a hitman in Phrygia didn't help in his eventual dependency on the substance.

As he took the first drag, Eren started thinking of what to say to them, as he knew they should be walking through shortly.

"Aren't you a little young to be smoking?" asked Oluo disinterested in between sips of his mug.

"Aren't you a little old to be emulating your hero?" retorted Eren in the same tone. Oluo almost instantly spat his drink and turned to him, already his cheeks turning red in frustration.

"Why you little— "

"The new recruits have already arrived, right?" Eren shifted topic, to defuse the situation.

"Um, yeah. They arrived while we're on patrol earlier" he answered. Nodding in acknowledgement, Eren continued taking drags out of his cigarette.

"Have you taken a look at them?"

"No, they've spend the whole time inside the building learning about the formation and the plan for the expedition."

The two stood there for a few minutes, nothing much happening. As Eren turned his sight to the main building of the fort, he noticed what appeared to be three small lights emanating from the stone. It was a soft light, blue in colour. Rubbing his eyes, he looked again. Indeed, there were three faint lights, slowly descending from the tower. He looked on for a few seconds, wondering what was happening, following the lights as they came down to the base of the building and moved to the door. Once they exited the door, everything came into place for Eren as he realized what was the source of those lights.

Reiner, Berthold and Ymir.

Eren covered his left eye to confirm his suspicion. Indeed, he couldn't see the auras around them anymore. _So, I can know who are shifters by just looking at them _he thought while digesting the new information. _Not really very useful, but could help keep tabs on them if they're near._

Putting out his cigarette, Eren turned to Oluo to ask for permission to go talk to his friends, as last time around the older scout allowed him.

As he approached the group, Eren braced himself for the worst. For years, the very faces he saw approaching would haunt him every time his closed. Getting to a point that Eren would spend several days going with only a couple of hours of restless sleep. Their betrayals, their suffering, and of course their deaths were a weight he had carried, and continues to carry.

Seeing them like this, before Reiner and Berthold's betrayal, before the discovery of Marley, before everything; to see them in such a relative innocence was something unnatural for Eren, and to himself unworthy of presence it. He pushed his doubts on the back for now.

"Guys!" he called. Almost immediately, a voice he knew only too well answered.

"Eren" came Mikasa, cutting through the group as she approached him, followed closely by Armin.

He felt like tearing up. After so long. After so many nights with their corpses chasing him. Mikasa and Armin were there, alive, coming to receive him. _They're okay _he thought longingly, _they're alive._

Before he knew, Mikasa and Armin were caught in his arms. Both had a look of surprise in their faces at being embraced, as was expected, Eren at this point in their live was not one to throw hugs around.

"Sorry" he said apologetically while still keeping both of them in his embrace. "It just, it feels like it's been forever since I last saw you." His two friends looked at him still in shock for a few seconds before returning the hug.

The others looking from the back contemplated the scene with certain sense of strangeness. They had known since the beginning that those three were inseparable, but sometimes from how they behaved, especially Eren, it was easy to forget. So seeing them like this felt intimate, and they were out of place.

After breaking the hug, Mikasa took Eren's hands into hers, with a distressed look on her face. "Eren, have they done something terrible to you? Like dissecting every bit of your body or causing mental torment? And what happened to your eye?"

_Oh, Mikasa, you always worrying about me _Eren thought as a small smile came on his lips. "It's okay, seriously" he said. "And the eye, well, I woke up like that, no one knows why." He had to supress a chuckle when Mikasa still went on a tangent about 'the midget' crossing the line. Placing his hands on her shoulders, locking each gazes on the other. "You keep worrying and you'll be filled with wrinkles before you know."

He couldn't keep his chuckle supressed anymore when he saw Mikasa's eyes widened, her cheeks quickly turning red. _I knew I'd get something from listening to Cliff and Carmen's banter. _Turning to the other behind them watching on. Chatting a bit with them was alleviating in all kinds. He just wished he could be honest, but now was not the time.

He stopped when he saw Jean approaching. Eren had spent more time than he cared to count reflecting on just how much his relationship with Jean changed with the years. Going from a childish rivalry with constant bickering, to a trusting comradeship, to the distrust that naturally followed Eren's betrayal, the sympathy Jean expressed to him while in jail, ending with the man from Trost staying behind during the breakout.

They were the only two survivors of the attempt, Connie falling as they entered the tunnels, they were being chased down the subterranean path that laid beneath the jail. Eren and Jean took off running until they found the small boat that was left behind by the last fugitives whom they took the plan from. As they realised that it was made too hastily, it would sink of both men got on it. Before Eren realized, Jean had pushed him on the boat, kicking it off the coast. "Keep on living, you bastard! For her sake if not anything else!" he had said before taking position and started firing on their pursuers. Caught in the current, Eren could only watch helplessly as eventually Jean was shot and his position overran.

How could relationships change so drastically, from bickering and being at each other's neck to being willing to sacrifice oneself for the other. Eren had a strong respect for Jean for some time by that point, but after that, that respect had turned into an admiration and a gratefulness that he was glad he could now repay.

"Hey Jean" he said. "I see you joined the scouts."

"Marco is dead" was his only response. _Shit, I completely forgot about Marco. _It was cruel to admit, but with all that had happened, Eren had forgotten about him, even to the point that he couldn't remember Marco's face. So much time had passed, so much things had happened. Eren remembered that Marco and Jean were close during training, and that it was his death that lead Jean into the scouts in the first place. He also remembered why Marco died. Giving a short glance to Reiner and Berthold, Eren saw the former remain stoic, but the latter was looking away, feeling uncomfortable. He turned back to Jean.

"He was the better one of us, wasn't he?" he said. Jean was a bit taken aback, probably by the softness of his words, or what he said. Still he quickly recovered.

"Yeah, yeah he truly was."

The rest of the day continued on generally as he remembered. The recruits were given their new uniforms, making them official members of the Survey Corps, once again. Jean confront him for the incident of the Attack Titan going berserk in Trost, an old memory to Eren, but a fresh one to everyone else, also a fresh scar for Mikasa. Aside from that, it was generally pleasant affair, like the calm before the storm. And yet, the reminder of Marco and Trost activated old memories for Eren, memories he had been hiding from for a long time. It also awakened a sense of self-doubt, one that didn't really exist in him before, at least not to this extent. This was his second time going through this, and yet he felt like he was already failing.

* * *

**And that would be it for the first proper chapter of this story. Thank you to all the favs and follows it's been getting so far, I really appreciate it.**

**This chapter is mostly setting up what would be the direction of the story for the nearby future, so it's mostly mellow.**

**Also, I put Eren as a smoker for no real reason, the outside world in SNK seems to be in a time period similar to the early-mid 20th century, in which smoking was basically universal, and it considering that in canon he is a drinker, it would be natural for him to pick up smoking.**

**And that would be it, next chapter will be releasing next Friday. Until then!**


	3. II: How To Discipline A Shifter

**Disclaimer: I do not own the SNK series in any way, shape, or form.**

**A/N at the chapter's end.**

* * *

"Well, that could have gone a little smoother" said Eld, "especially with all that screaming. But hey, at least it's over."

"I'm just waiting to return and see who was inside that one" commented Oluo.

So far the expedition had gone just as last time. Eren and the Levi Squad had lured the Female Titan into the trap Erwin had prepared. Afterwards they had gone over to their designated position. The screams coming from the inside of the forest, followed shortly by the signal to retreat meant that Annie had once again slipped through the fingers of Erwin.

_We should be moving soon, then receive a signal from Annie posing as Levi. I need to be ready by then _Eren thought as he installed a new gas canister to feed his ODM gear. As he adjusted the goggle Hanji gave him to compensate for his impaired vision, he was taken out of his thoughts by Petra, who was saying something to him.

"Sorry, wasn't listening, what were you saying?"

"Nothing" she answered, "just wanted to thank you for trusting us today. Too many times I've seen new cadets just rushing into combat just to be torn apart instead of following their orders. So I wanted to thank you for sticking by the captain's orders. It's not easy to make the right decision."

"Don't praise him too much" came Oluo's cocky voice. "It's not like he did anything spectacular, all he did is do what the captain told him. Though I guess surviving his first expedition unscathed it's a beginning."

"Not unlike you" Eld chimed in. "I remember that you and Petra pissed yourselves in your first go. How much have you two grown!"

"Gah! Don't say that, Eld!" Petra screamed. "The boy'll lose respect on us!" The blond veteran simply shrugged before turning and started swinging through the trees.

"Hey, all I'm saying it's that with these white pants everyone can see whose guts gave way!"

Now Oluo, who was fuming in embarrassment, started going after Eld and Gunther who were already moving.

"You idiot! I've killed more titans than you! Many more in fact!"

"That doesn't make you a better soldier. Congrats Eren, I didn't get scared the first time, alright. I welcome you to the club!"

"Hey, knock it off back there!" barked Gunther. "The expedition's not over until we're back at base! The man then turned his head forward to the path ahead. "... Oh, and Eren, I wasn't scared my first time either."

If he wasn't so focused, Eren would probably have stopped for a few seconds to appreciate the people who were surrounding him. He was determined on keeping them alive.

Soon thereafter the signal came, followed by Gunther's response. As the impending moment draw nearer, Eren was pulled out his thoughts by Petra.

"Hey, you seem pretty quiet" she said.

"I have a very bad feeling" he responded.

Before she could continue, a figure appeared at their left. This was it. This was the moment to start changing history, hopefully for the better. He heard Eld and Petra question whether or not that figure was Levi.

"I've never seen the captain covering his face" Eren said before propelling forward. He did so just before Annie would turn and start dashing towards Gunther. She never saw him until Eren crashed into her, sending them both flying. Crashing onto a branch from a nearby tree, Eren saw Annie fall into some bushes some meters away. Gunther landed next to him, he seemed confused, confused and upset.

Before that, however, a bolt of lightning fell into the same bushes the figure had fallen to a few moments ago. From then, the imposing image of the Female Titan arose, setting its eyes on the retreating scouts, giving chase.

_Ok _thought Eren, _this is my chance to stop Annie right here. _As he started to formulate a plan as to how to confront her, he could hear that Levi squad was making their own plan. Soon enough, Eld called Eren to let him know what they decided on.

"Eren, you go straight for the horses and leave!" he said. _Shit, I completely forgot about this._

"I'm staying with you" was his response.

"Do as you're told brat!" screamed Oluo.

"Eren, this is no time for heroics" added Gunther.

"I can't leave you to fight that alone!" Eren shot back. "We don't know what she's capable of. You really expect me to leave you to be stomped?!"

"Eren don't you trust us?!" asked Petra as she unsheathed her blades. _Oh, you're not pulling that on me this time _he thought frowning. _They can hate me if they want, at least they'll live. _Without word Eren turned around and started transforming. A good thing about Genesis, Eren found, was that it didn't produce a bolt of lightning when activated, he hoped that would throw Annie of at least long enough to land the first hit.

Sadly, that didn't work. Because, if well the Female Titan was slightly surprised, she still dodged the opening attack and adopted a fighting stance. Inside, Annie was unprepared for Eren to shift so quickly, or how his titan's appearance changed so much. She wondered what was happening, but shook her head to concentrate, this was her chance to accomplish her mission.

On his part, Eren was making a strategy as to how to approach this fight. Annie had always been a tough opponent, whether in human or titan form. Her being proficient in both kicks and grapples meant she was dangerous no matter how one approached the fight. On his part, Eren had, probably, more experience, he was more resilient and had the spikes in his elbows and knees. He also knew her style pretty well, then it dawned on him.

_I'm most likely faster than her, if I use a good faint to break her guard. Or if she attacks first, I could get away with throwing a jab. _With his tactics settled for the moment, Eren shifted his waist so his right side faced the Female Titan. With his leg positioned for a rapid side-kick and his clenched fist extended forwards, Eren kept a distance from Annie, so he could have space to kick. A few seconds rolled by, with either opponent waiting for the other to make the first move, both keeping to a counter-attack strategy.

With that settled, Eren decided to open with a flick punch aiming to the head, the Female Titan lifted his right arm to block the attack. Annie realized too late that by doing so, she had left her body exposed to a side-kick, which almost immediately landed on her mid-section, sending her backwards several meters, being halted by a tree.

Both the power of the attack and her crashing on a tree broke Annie's guard. Mistake that was swiftly punished by Eren who landed an upward blow with his elbow on her jaw. Without time to process that attack either, he followed it up by slamming his knee against her torso, the spike penetrating the muscle and causing bleeding as it went out. He would have kept the barrage going, knowing that leaving Annie Leonhart time to recover was a mistake, but he was stopped and pushed back by an unexpected kick, slowing the tempo of the battle once more.

The state of mind of the combatants was very contrasting. Annie was shocked that Eren, that dumb kid with a severe case of tunnel-vision, had effectively pulled a faint on her, and could probably have defeated her right there and then if not for her quick thinking. _Where did he pulled that from?! _Everything from his appearance to his tactics, even his stance had changed drastically, _something's not right here _she thought.

For his part, Eren couldn't help but feel slightly cocky at how shocked the Female Titan. _I suppose you weren't expecting that_ he said to himself. As he planned his next move he gave a small thanks to the man who had taught him that style, _Seb, if I ever see you again, the drinks will be on me_ he promised to the puffy-haired member of the Meliora.

As both titans returned their concentration to their opponent, adopting their previous stances, the members of the Levi Squad looked on from a safe distance.

"Damn brat!" cried Oluo. "He has no respect for his superiors!" Petra was standing beside him looking equally pissed and betrayed.

"What should we do?" asked Eld.

"I'll throw a signal in case the captain is nearby" answered Gunther while searching for a flare gun.

"We should intervene." As Eld said this, all the other three members stared at him. "I mean it is our duty to keep him safe."

"Let's do it then" Petra said frowning before jumping into battle. Knowing that they were already engaged, the other three soon followed her.

Their intrusion into the battle threw Eren out of the loop. _Idiots, what are you doing?! _With them involved, he couldn't keep on attacking the Female Titan, as doing so might harm them as well. He could only look on impotently as they pulled the same move they did the first time, with making a faint only for then Gunther and Petra to take her eyes out, followed by Eld and Gunther who left her arms useless, pinned back to the tree. It all seemed to be going alright, but Eren knew that Annie would punish their first mistake, last time it being Eld swinging too close to her mouth, now, with Gunther as another possible target, the chances of one slip up increased. He knew he had to do something.

Seeing that all four members were a fair distance away, Eren seized the opportunity by closing the distance and give the strongest kick he could muster against the Female Titan, hitting her with so much power that the tree behind her snapped, she flew through the air before landing harshly on the ground. Annie was remained immobile for a few seconds.

As she lay on the floor, Oluo dashed in, looking for the kill. Eren tried to call to him, to no avail.

Annie had regenerated her eye by then and had already located one of the intrusive scouts. Seeing that neither the other scouts nor Eren were close enough, she waited for just the right moment to spring her trap. As that moment came, her arm moved with impressive speed, her hand clenching into a fist around the poor sod. Feeling the multitude of bones breaking at once and the splattering of blood, she knew that he couldn't have possibly survived. Rubbing her hand against the floor as she would with any mosquito, the Female Titan lifter her gaze. She had managed to completely heal both her right eye and arm. Against her momentarily frozen opponents, she slowly stood up.

Eren, on his side, push his shock and anger to the side and moved forward. Making use of Annie only having one good arm for the moment made things easier. He approached and quickly grabbed her arm with his left hand, taking it out of the way, and started throwing punches. The fact that she dodged a couple at such a short distance was another reminder that, even in her current state, Annie Leonhart was not to be dealt lightly.

His attack was stopped once again as the Female Titan pushed him off with a kick to the liver, releasing her arm in the process. Quickly hardening her knuckles, Annie threw a strong punch to his jaw. Eren stumbled back, falling on his knees. Fortunately, this time his jaw didn't go flying, the mask having absorbed most of the force. Standing up he started to move forward again, only to see Eld, Petra and Oluo starting to make their own attack.

Annie saw them approach. She was in a bad spot, those three scouts were still capable of incapacitating her if she left them unchecked, but she couldn't focus on them because Eren's strange new beast was still in too short a distance. Sensing her other arm new fully regenerated. Swatting them away like flies, she saw them fall to the ground, still alive, but badly hurt and their gear probably busted. With that small nuisance out of the way, she turned back just in time to receive punch straight to the face, breaking her jaw in the process.

Eren had had enough qualms by then. Discarding his approach for a simple barrage, using punches, kicks, elbows and knees, he was not allowing Annie any chance of counter, opting for overwhelm her rather than going around her defense. And it was working, him being faster, more experienced and more varied in his attacks ensured that she couldn't find an opening to counter. Breaking her legs, he picked the Female Titan up and send her flying against a nearby tree.

As she landed and saw Eren approaching, Annie realized this was not a battle she could win. She had been too overconfident on a sweeping victory against the novice Eren and his entourage of experienced, but unprepared bodyguards. She had to retreat, she had to look for a different approach. Remembering the presence of many mindless titans nearby, she decided on her path, and started screaming.

_Oh no,_ thought Eren furiously,_ you're not pulling that again! _Closing the distance, he silenced her by throwing a kick, which she caught, but was enough to stop her screaming.

Sadly, it was too late, as he could already hear the stomps of several mindless titans directing to them from many different locations. It was then he realized that the Levi Squad was in the ground, with their gear probably ruined. Pushing his foot free, Eren backed up to gather them. As he took them and put them in a tall enough branch, he turned back to the Female Titan, only to see her hunched over like a doll. Annie had already left it and took off. She had escaped.

Jumping off the nape of his titan, Eren landed on the branch and turned to his teammates. Eld and Petra were awake, Eld had dislocated his arm and was holding his torso, he probably had fractured his ribs, Petra was banged up and seemed to have broken her leg. Gunther was passed out, he was very banged up, badly, with several deep cuts in his face arms and legs, and his back was broken so badly it was visible even through the layers of clothing. Grimacing at the spectacle, he noticed that Petra was looking at him.

"I told you I had a bad feeling" he said quietly before turning back to witness the arrival of the mindless titans, devouring the empty carcass of the Female Titan. He grimaced as he realized that he would have to come up with something quickly if he wanted to avoid the whole ordeal that was the fight in Stohess.

* * *

"_Can this heat get any worse?" he asked as he covered the sun with his hand. Besides him a big, middle aged man chuckled._

"_We're in a desert. What were you expecting? A cool pint and a blowjob?" he asked sarcastically as he counted his ammo. In front of them, the puffy-haired man surveying the canyon looked back from his binoculars._

"_I wouldn't mind that, now that you mention it" he said with a smirk, getting a grunt from the older man._

"_Don't get any ideas, Seb. We're on a job here."_

"_Yeah, yeah, I know" he said as he lowered back to their hiding spot. "Well, nothing yet. You sure they'll pass through here?" _

"_The alpenians' spy said they'd be moving troops down south" the older man explained. "The only working train track from the capital in that direction is this one." As he said that, a slender woman entered their hiding spot, she put out her cigarette before she started talking._

"_The explosives are set. They're waiting for our signal to blow the bridge."_

"_Nice job, Carmen" said Seb lying back on a rock. "Your inspecting services are top notch, as usual."_

"_Listen to me, you fucker. I'm getting really tired of your shit! If you say anything—" she was saying before a whistle from the older man stop her._

"_It's too early for me to deal with your bickering" he said sternly. "Carmen, get ready, Karl get back to scouting, now!" The woman decided to comply while muttering further insults, the man shrugged._

"_Whatever you say, Boss." A couple of minutes later, Karl called for their attention. "I see smoke on the horizon. It's too far to make the train out, give me a minute." Later confirming that it was the armored train they were after._

_Boss took over from then. "Everyone in position. You know the drill, we wait until it's close enough, the alpenians blow up the train, we help mopping up the survivors and capture the shifters inside. Get to it!"_

_As they got in position near the bottom of the canyon, he looked to see the bridge. If he squinted, he could make out the places where the explosives were set. The heat was atrocious. He had heard of how hot it could get in places like this, but experiencing it was another matter. And the scarf on his neck was not helping, but he was not going to drop it._

_After some waiting, the signal was given, and explosions started to appear on the bridge above, bringing the massive metal structure down. Soon the train came, free falling into the canyon as well._

_As the dust settled, he and Carmen quickly moved along the alpenian warriors, they stood out with them wearing pants and shirts in contrast to their allies' tunics and turbans made for this climate. Shooting anyone who stepped out of the train, they made quick work of the survivors. When Seb and Boss reached them at the bottom, they went for the car that had the signal of the Warriors Program in there. Entering, they quickly found the two passengers they were looking, unconscious and wounded. As Boss went outside to call for the stretchers and gags,_ _Seb light a cigarette, clicking his tongue as a cocky grin came to his face._

"_What did I tell you, Eldia?" the man asked him in between drags. "Best way to get a shifter is doing so before they shift."_

* * *

A few days had gone by since the expedition. Most of the scouts had retreated to their base in Stohess. After dark, Mikasa and Armin headed to the quarters where the Commander had called them. As they moved through the halls, he turned to her.

"What do you think they called us for?" he asked.

"I don't know" she answered. "But if they're calling us for, it probably involves Eren."

"Yeah, I was thinking the same." The two fell silent as they continued walking through the corridors. After a few seconds, he spoke again. "He's been acting differently." It was statement, Mikasa noted, rightfully so. There really was no other way about it.

"He's been a lot quieter recently."

"He doesn't seem very angry anymore. Remember the day we left for the expedition?" Of course Mikasa remembered it. As the groups were preparing for the bug day, the recruits of the 104th were having breakfast in the mess hall. The banter was lead, as usual, by Connie and Sasha, and somewhere along the line they directed themselves to Eren.

"Hey, Eren" she remembered Connie say. "You ready for a second shot against the titans?"

For his part, Eren didn't seem to listen at first, he being lost in thought. "Huh, oh that. Sure, I can hardly wait" was all he said, not even explaining after everyone on the table was staring at him.

It was something Mikasa hadn't really shaken off since. Seeing the usually passionate Eren so apathetic felt, wrong. When she and Armin confronted him about that later that day, he simply excused himself by saying he was tired. It didn't ease her concerns, but she couldn't say anything to that.

There was also the fact that now he was being more affectionate, especially towards her and Armin. There was that embrace when they reunited, but also small moments, things that would barely be worth taking into account, like putting a hand on their shoulders, or simply looking at them with a small, even sad, smile. And on top of that, there was that he had told her where he was going to be in the formation when they were alone, even after just saying he wasn't supposed to.

It felt off, Mikasa couldn't put her finger on it, but all she could really do was hope it was just her being paranoid. When she went with Armin about her concern, he had said that maybe the whole episode in Trost and the trial had put things in perspective. She shook those thoughts as they approached the door.

As the two entered the room they were summoned, the saw that the only people inside were commander Erwin, squad leader Hanji and captain Levi, and all had a dark look on their faces.

"Oh, you are here" said Erwin. "Please take a seat." As the two took a seat opposite to Levi and Hanji, they turned to Erwin again.

"Commander, can we know why we were summoned?" asked Armin.

"Originally we were going to relay you the plan for the apprehension of the Female Titan. But something of more relevance has happened since." This took both of them by surprise.

"What could have happened?" questioned Armin. Erwin was staring at them when he retorted.

"I wish to speak to you about Eren Yeager. Since you're the ones who have known him the longest, you might help me with something about him."

"Is something the matter?" asked Mikasa warily.

"Well, indeed there is" he said before turning his back on the table. "The report we got from him painted the picture of a passionate, albeit impulsive young man. But by the time he was settled with us, he had proven himself to be a rather laid-back, even apathetic. What do you make of that?"

"We were just discussing this change in attitude" Armin once again replied after a few seconds. "I believe it is just from the shock of everything that's happened recently."

"An understandable assertion" the commander relented. "Did you know that he smokes tobacco?"

"What?!" Mikasa said shocked, as she felt a piece fall into place. _That's the reason for that smell of his lately _something stirred in the back of her head. Erwin Smith nodded.

"He came to us shortly after joining the Squad of Captain Levi, asking to be supplied a jar of the thing. But the thing is that he doesn't use a pipe, he lines the tobacco in a sheet of paper which he rolls up and smokes from them."

"Why are you telling us that?" Armin asked cautiously.

"Because for some time I've get this feeling from him. This sensation that, somehow, he knows more than he lets on." A small chill ran through Erwin's spine as the memory of the young shifter's answer to his question resurfaced.

"Who do you think the real enemy is?" he whispered to the boy as they witnessed the dead bodies of Hanji's imprisoned titans. Without missing a beat, the young soldier turned to him and answered with a flat tone.

"Whoever's not us" he answered. "But who's 'us?' And who are 'they?'"

Returning to the present, Erwin directed himself to the young cadets in the table.

"Before we had even settled back in Karanese, he came to us, already with the identity of the Female Titan. He had given a very good rationale for his suspicion, so by the time you came to us, Arlert, with the same suspect, it was something to be considered more seriously."

"The reason for this tangent" he resumed, "is because we want to be completely sure that he, indeed, has humanity's best interest in mind, as he claimed. Do you believe so?"

"He does" Mikasa instantly argued, followed shortly by Armin. Erwin looked over to Levi and Hanji, who nodded. It was then that he let it come out.

"When was the last time you saw him?" he asked. Seeing their widening at the question meant that they already were seeing where this was going.

"Well" Armin took the initiative, "we last saw him at noon today."

"Did he say something worthy of note?"

"He, um, not that I think of" answered the blond boy. Mikasa, for her part, was trying hard to remember something along those lines from their short conversation earlier that day.

"He said that the sun irritated his eye" she remembered. "That he might get a hat from the market."

"Here you have your clue, Levi. Go see what you can figure out." The captain nodded before rising from the table to gather his equipment. "You two go with him."

"What is happening?" asked Armin as he was becoming more stressed. Levi turned to them as he was at the door.

"No one has seen Eren Yeager missing since the late afternoon. Get some others to come and meet me outside. Hurry."

* * *

**Well, this is it for thesecond chapter. I hope you enjoyed it. What do you think about these little flashbacks? So far I've put one per chapter, but am still unsure of whether keep them going.**

**Tune in next week for the second fight with Annie.**

**As always, all reviews are welcomed.**


	4. III: Diverting

**Disclaimer: I do not own the SNK series in any way, shape, or form.**

**A.N at the end of the chapter.**

* * *

Night patrol was one of Annie's least favorite activities since she joined the Military Police. The moment she entered service, their superiors wasted no time in dropping their responsibilities onto the new blood. It made for several hours of needless work upon her; and nights like this, where she was assigned patrol, she had quickly learnt to hate with a passion. The fact that the Dreyse girl decided to opt out and left her to patrol the streets for herself was something she was still unsure was a pro or a con. Nevertheless, her mood was always sour on these nights.

As she strolled the quiet nights of the more affluent side of the city, she was mostly trying to entertain her mind by trying to map that part of town by memory. To have every street and alleyway plastered on her mind for no reason other than what else could she do.

"Hey Annie" she heard a voice calling in a low tone, ringing her out of her mind. As she turned to the direction of the voice, she saw a cloaked figure at the entrance of an alley. She closed in, taking her musket in her hands. Move that the figure noted. "There's no need for that, Annie" the voice, this time more familiar to her, said as he took the hood of his face. "We're friends after all" said Eren Yeager.

"Eren! What are you doing here?" she said wide-eyed. He, in response made a sign to keep quiet.

"Not here, come. We might get spotted" he said before entering the alley. Annie hesitated for a few moments. What was Eren doing here? How he had found her? And what might he want? A few alarms were going off inside her head. As she saw him continue down the alley, she gave a small sigh before following.

The two walked down the alley before turning into another. Going furtively through some streets, making sure there was no one in sign before crossing. They were like that for a few minutes until stopping at a corner, where they halted. Eren looked to both sides before once again uncover his face.

"I think we are alone" he said before giving a relieved sigh.

"What's happening?" she asked again, keeping her face unemotional. "Why are you here?"

"Oh, me and a few other scouts are here on orders of Supreme Commander Zackly. We are to meet him tomorrow" seeing that she gave no answer, he continued. "Annie, they are to discuss my future in the Survey Corps."

That took her by surprise. "What do you mean?" she asked.

"You might have heard of the failure of our latest expedition" he said. When she nodded he continued. "That has made many people lose their faith in giving me a chance, I was told. It's likely they'll give me up to the MPs on that meeting." The implications of that were not lost on Annie, as she had heard many times her 'comrades' commenting on what should be done with him.

"Shit… this is bad" she muttered.

"Yeah, you can say that" he answered before leaning on the wall. "Listen, Armin's trying to come up with a plan to put me into hiding. But for that we need your help, because we'll be walking in plain daylight. It's either that or trying to escape using ODM gear to go up the wall" Annie raised an eyebrow at that.

"That would be stupid, you wouldn't get far like that" she commented on that alternative as she looked to the side, she knew there were other patrols in the area.

"Exactly, that's why we need your help… And also" she stopped to pay attention, "in case that fails… I want to know if you could help me if it comes to that."

"How exactly I'm supposed to help you?"

"I don't know!" he said exasperated. "It's just, things haven't been going as expected for me recently, and I just, want another option. If the worst happens." She thought for some moments. If Eren fell to the MPs it would be bad for her mission, as they made clear they would dissect and then kill him, along with his titan power. But, there wasn't much she could do to begin with. Still, if things were really that bad, she'd have to pull through. She always had to.

"I cannot promise you anything" she said, "but I'll see what I can do."

"Thanks, Annie. You're a true friend" he said gratefully. She felt uncomfortable at that. But before anything else could happen, they noticed a small light emanating from the other end of the corner. "Shit, we need to hide" he said as he looked for somewhere to hide. Soon finding a small window by the floor of the house opposite to the one they were leaning into, he quickly opened it and went inside. Seeing the light of the other patrol approaching, she quickly weighed her options. She didn't realize until then just how far from her designated area she was, she couldn't be found there without rising suspicion. She looked at the small window.

"Oh, for fuck's sake" she muttered before bending over to slide through the window.

* * *

Soaring above Stohess, Levi and the motley crew assembled were searching for any clues regarding where the damn brat had gone. Looking back, he saw his new 'team', consisting of Ackerman, Arlert and Kirstein. _From leading one of the most experienced squads to babysitting newbies _he thought sardonically. He didn't doubt their abilities, two out of them made the top ten of their lot, and the boy Arlert had a very sharp mind; and all three had been in the center of the whole affair in Trost, they were very promising. But they were green, and their journey had just started. He just hoped that potential won't go to waste, as it had with so many before.

"Where exactly are we going?" asked Kirstein behind him.

"There's a famous hat maker in the city who lives not far from here. We'll start asking there, and from there we'll continue through all known textile shops."

As they approached their destination, Levi started to think about the boy, specifically their last conversation. It was earlier that day, before dawn. He was sitting in the empty mess hall drinking tea after just arriving from Karanese. Soon thereafter, Eren entered the hall, they both looked at each other for a few seconds before the boy moved forward, signaling if he could serve himself a cup, Levi nodded. Then he sat opposite to him on the table.

"Shouldn't you be asleep?" Levi asked quietly.

"Cannot sleep" he answered, shaking his head. "I thought maybe taking a walk might help." The two then sat in silence for a few minutes until Eren spoke again. "How are they?" he asked.

Levi was always who preferred opening with the bad news. "Gunther's wounds got infected. There was nothing to be done by the time he reached the hospital." He looked from his cup to see Eren let out a sigh, visibly shaken he looked down.

"I'm sorry."

"Gunther always understood the danger that came with being a scout better than anyone" he said softly. "At least it's over for him now." No word was uttered for some time. Seeing that the brat was taking it hard, he went to the good news.

"As for Eld and Petra, they will be out of the picture for a few months, but we should expect a full recovery." Saying that did little to uplift his mood.

"That's good to hear" he said quietly. "Though… I can't help but think that I could've done more back then."

"Don't beat yourself up. We never know what would happen if we did this or that." Eren looked away, his teeth clenching. He took a cigarette a started smoking.

"Didn't I tell you not to do that indoors?" Levi turned to see him giving an apologetic face, it was almost amusing in a way. He sighed. "Oh, well, what's done is done. How did you come up with that anyway?"

"Is Captain Levi making small talk?" the brat asked with certain amusement, Levi in turn simply gave a dismissive hum. The younger man shook his head. "It came to me in a dream."

"A dream?" Levi asked raising an eyebrow. Eren was looking away.

"Ever since the trial, I've been getting these weird dreams. They're these things that show me weird things. I don't know how to explain it, it might not even be anything, that why I haven't brought them up before. But I get this feeling sometimes, that I'mlooking at a puzzle, and that all I need is a few more pieces and the right perspective."

Coming back to the present, Levi was particularly interested in the boy's last comment. Erwin believed that Eren knew more than he let on, was that one a confession of sorts? He couldn't tell really.

"The right perspective, huh..." he muttered as they approached their destination. "Just what is going on in your head?"

* * *

The two were in complete silence as the saw the patrol pass by through the window. Watching the cool blue light of the cloudless sky be overshadowed by the orange light coming from the lantern of the MPs passing by was one of those experiences which affected Annie in a way it shouldn't have. Maybe she was just overreacting. She remained quiet for a minute after the patrol had passed by, just to make sure they were well out of sight, then sighed.

"That was close" she said, trying to remain her relief out of her voice. "Come on, we need to— "

"Hold on a second" Eren said behind her. She turned around to see that the rectangular basement of the house they were in was pretty barren, safe for a small trunk next to the stairs and a bookcase opposite to it. Judging from the dust, this place had been abandoned for at least a few years. Eren was standing in front of the bookcase, seemingly in trance with it. "Something is wrong with this one."

"What do you mean?" she asked, slightly frustrated. "It's only an old bookcase in an abandoned basement."

As she said that the idiot started inspecting it. Looking over the edges of the old wood, looking for something. After a few moments, he seemingly found what he looked for. "There's a hole behind it" he said and instantly started pulling the bookcase out of the way. Indeed, there was a hole. Closing in, Annie saw that it was a secret staircase that went down for some meters, finishing in a room. A room which had lit by candlelight. An ominous sensation settled itself on her stomach, Eren was a few stairs down, looking at the bottom. When he looked up, Annie became almost certain that something very bad was about to happen.

"What do you think is down there?" he asked.

"I don't know and I don't care" she decisively. "Let's get out of here."

"Oh, come on" he protested as he got up the stairs, standing mere centimeters from her. "Don't tell me you're afraid."

"I am actually" she said. "It's not like a suicidal bastard like you'd understand." Eren started to circle around her until he was standing right behind her, he leant into her ear.

"And what if I told you the Coordinate is down there?" he whispered. Annie's eyes widened when she processed what she heard. Did she hear correctly? _H-How does know that?! _

Before she could react, she felt a kick in her lower back, pushing her into the darkness of that staircase. Feeling her skin bruising and her bones breaking, she fell, occasionally watching the shadowy figure of Eren pulling the bookcase behind her, hiding them in the shadows, falling towards the bottom.

* * *

"This is it" Levi said as they stood before the door to the house of hatter. Arlert started walking towards it.

"Wait, you're not just going to knock, are you" asked Kirstein.

"What other options do we have?" he asked in return.

Mikasa stood shortly behind Armin, her cloak hiding the fact that her hands were firmly grasping the handle of her blades. If things went sour, she would be ready. She would protect Armin and find Eren, alone if need be.

Levi seemed to have noticed it, as he was looking at her rather than Armin, he was giving her a questioning look. Their stares clashed momentarily, only being broken by the sound of the knocking on the door.

Tension filling the small band as they waited for the answer. Jean was really hoping things went out fine, as he was not ready to be fighting other humans. Finally, the door started opening, revealing a middle-age man holding a small candle. He was slightly overweight, with a round belly and cheeks to match. His graying hair had thinned out of the top of his head. When the man looked at them, something seemed to have hit him.

"Oh! You must be the friends that soldier had told me about earlier." That took all four scouts by surprise.

"Yes, yes we are. You have seen him, then." Armin answered, recovering quickly.

"Why yes" the man answered. "He came by the shop at dusk, he said that you would be passing by sometime in the evening. He gave me a letter for me to hand you, and paid me a bit for the inconvenience. I'll go get it, wait here, please" he said before retreating inside his house.

The scouts were dumbfounded with what had just happened. Mikasa and Armin were exchanging looks, both looking for answers in the other.

"D-Did that just happen?" asked Jean. "Eren just left us a letter with that man as an intermediary. Why would he do that?"

"Because he knew we would go out look for him" Armin realized, somehow he knew that they would find out about his absence and ask him and Mikasa about it, leading them to this man. _But why though? _he pondered _Why would he do all of this, just so we could receive this letter? _His train of thought was stopped when the man appeared again, with a small letter in his hand.

"Here you go" he said as he handed them the letter, "I don't know why he would go through me to give you this to you, he simply said it was a matter of importance to the kingdom. Well, if that is all, I will return to sleep." He said his goodbyes before closing the door to his house.

As they retreated to a nearby rooftop, Levi took the letter and opened it. The contents of the letter were a simple address inside of the city.

"This is not too far from here. And there's this thing below it: 'Down in the basement, behind the bookshelf.'"

"What could that possibly be?" asked Armin. Levi rose and turned in the direction of the address.

"We won't find out until we're there. Let's just hope the brat's there to explain himself" he said before moving, followed shortly by the rest.

* * *

Landing in the room, she felt how her spine was broken, that would take a minute or two to heal. She looked around, taking in where she was. It was a small room, it seemed it had some old furniture, a couch, a chair and a table with a glass top in between. Not too far behind was a bed, and to the side was what appeared to be a small kitchen. She heard footsteps closing into the room, looking up, she saw Eren entering the room.

"It took me some trial and error to find this house" he said as he put his cloak and jacket aside, she noticed he was not wearing the harness of the uniform. He turned to the door that led to the staircase. "If you're wondering what is this place, for many years, the crown persecuted the members of the Ackerman clan. Those lucky enough to not get killed immediately went into hiding, most in the Underground. Others in remote parts of the countryside, and some others, those a bit too proud to leave the cities or hide among rats, built safe havens below houses of collaborators. This is one of those havens. If I remember correctly, it was last used about twenty years ago."

As he explained, he closed the door and started locking it, she noticed just the sheer amounts of locks that door had. He finished off by barricading the door with a plank lying by the door. By then, Annie's wound had mostly healed, so she stood up to face him.

"This place is around ten or twelve meters below ground, that means you won't be shifting without turning yourself into a bloody fucking pulp" he said. She hated to admit that she had been effectively cornered. Her expression darkened.

"You figure it out that quickly?" she asked. He, in turn shrugged. They were circling around each other, like two animals searching for an opening.

"You didn't make it too difficult back there" he said in turn. "You know? For a good while I really hated you, I mean how couldn't I? You were behind all of this. You were the reason Wall Maria fell. How could you defend yourself? What reason could you possibly have?" He spoke in a low tone, their stares met. "But I get it now, I really do."

Annie let out a dry laugh. "You don't understand anything, Eren" she said dangerously. "You can't possibly comprehend just how much bigger all of this is in comparison to this fantasy of yours." Now, was Eren's turn to chuckle.

"Bigger, you say" he answered. "Eldians, Marleyans. Survey Corps, Warriors Program. Ymir and Karl fucking Fritz. Fuck them, each and every one! This is not about them! Back in that forest, you killed many people, two of them I considered friends of mine. This whole affair's not bigger than this room" he said as he took the very same stance he had taken in their earlier confrontation. "This is between you and me, right here, right now!"

Pushing her shock to the side, Annie adopted her own stance of combat, they stared each other down, daring the other to make the first move.

* * *

"_I know it means shit, but I'm really sorry for everything back there" she said once again as the kept walking through the gravel trail. He turned his look on the surrounding trees while keeping his hand firmly on the fabric around his neck._

"_It's in the past" he said quietly._

_They had met only a couple of hours ago in the most unlikely of places. This small village was not too far away from Libero, aside from that it was mostly unremarkable. He was there simply because the other members of the Meliora were searching for a bounty who, allegedly, was hiding in the area. He had separated from them after breakfast, according to meet them at their hotel in the evening, and went to sit in the local park, that's where he found her._

_Their meeting was quiet, uncomfortable, and anything but cathartic. Still, she insisted on him accompanying her home, to meet her father. Her reason behind everything, she explained, was to come back to him. She had promised she would return no matter what, and was willing to do everything to return to her only family. He had to admit he was intrigued to meet such a man, it wouldn't change anything, but it would still give some closure to her betrayal back in Paradis all those years ago._

"_We're almost there" she said, her voice filled with excitement. She had been waiting for this for so long, he noticed._

_Sadly, it wasn't to be, as what came into view was not a cabin, but rather a small clear, with the burn down bases of a structure in the middle. He saw her running towards it. Looking for something, anything, that might save her hope. She cried for him to help, but he mostly stuck in the back. After some time, she finally came across an old rope hung from a tree nearby, with a cane nearby._

_He watched on as her world crumbled in front of her, seeing her on her knees, weeping inconsolably. She had lost everything, just like him. Walking to stand by her, he put a hand on her shoulder, whether or not she noticed he could not tell._

_After what seemed like hours, she looked up to him. Tears were still running down her cheeks, but what called his attention was her eyes, the emptiness they expressed. Those eyes had rarely expressed anything other than boredom or spite, but seeing them so vacuous, so devoid of any will to keep going, was disturbing. And he thought nothing could move him anymore…_

* * *

Crashing against the counter, Eren quickly dodged an incoming kick from Annie, in the process taking a pan lying about, smashing it in her head, making her tumble backwards. Going for another hit, she caught his wrist, twisting it until he let go of the pan, and then tossed him to the ground.

Moving out of the way of an oncoming kick, Eren, quickly went back up. Things weren't going as smoothly as he hoped, perhaps Genesis' superior speed in full form altered his expectations a bit. Then again, both of them were pretty bloodied. The closed environment had played in his favor, as Annie was restricted when it came to her kicks, making them more circumstantial than a real threat. It was mostly a fight of Annie going for grapples and quick shots, while Eren relied on elbows and knees, plus the use of whatever he could find to throw his opponent off.

Their conflict was resulting into a very brutal affair, with both using the environment to their favor. If Eren smashed a chair into Annie, she would in turn take one of the broken legs and stab him. If Annie used a kitchen knife against Eren, he would take it off his body, slashing her face in return. And if Eren kicked her into a chair, Annie would throw him into the table. Glass shattering, cutting him in his back and arms. They were bloodied, their clothes were getting ragged and stains of blood all over themselves and the floor. Only their healing and determination to achieve victory keeping them moving.

As he got up, Eren quickly dashed towards Annie, throwing a quick jab. As she caught it, he quickly moved his free arm and threw an elbow shot to her chin, letting go of him. Annie quickly recovered and, with a low kick, stopped Eren's momentum. She quickly seized the opening and threw a barrage of punches, kicks and knee shots. Eren could feel how he was lagging behind, his regeneration wasn't as fast as Annie's. If the fight kept going, he would soon be facing a real chance of losing right there. Covering a punch to his head, Eren realized the opening he had left in his torso, and was swiftly punished with a kick to the liver.

He stumbled backwards onto the kitchen counter, as the pain became too intense for him to ignore it. Feeling the shape of a knife behind him, he quickly took it, and as Annie was about to throw another shot, he stabbed her in the torso. She fumbled back, and he fell to the ground coughing for air, the pain on his liver too big to just tough it out.

As he saw her coming forward, he had already come up with a way to end this, he just needed one lucky second. Just as Annie lifted her leg to kick him in the head, he made a quick move to block it. And with his right hand, he stabbed her in the upper part of the neck with one of her blades.

Annie's body stopped working immediately, collapsing like a rag doll next to Eren. Seeing the knife he had stabbed her with falling next to him, he placed it just above his blade before removing the latter.

"It's frustrating" he said with a dry chuckle. "I have more years of experience than you, I chose where to fight, I knew everything about you and your fighting style and I still couldn't beat you in a fair one on one." Ripping a piece of his shirt, he gagged her, after all, one could never be too cautious with shifters. "Mikasa and the other should be here soon enough, I hope. It'd be a fucking pain dragging you back to base on my own otherwise."

Pulling his head backwards, Eren let out a heavy sigh, he had done it. This was the first big change in this new reality. Having Annie as a prisoner would be an excellent way to spread the knowledge about Marley faster. And, if he managed to convinced her and the scouts, she would prove a valuable ally. Otherwise, they could always use her for leverage against Reiner and Berthold. For the first time since waking up in the hospital, Eren truly felt like there was a chance of things going well this time, and he basked himself in the sensation as he waited.

"Annie…" he whispered softly while looking at the ceiling. "Things will go well this time. I'll make sure of it. I'll save all of them, even you Annie" he looked down to her, there tears in her eyes. "You don't remember, but you saved me back there. If it hadn't been for you, I wouldn't have gone to get and destroy all nine shifters, and that was what gave me this second opportunity. I'll save you Annie… I owe you that much."

The next few minutes passed in silence, no sound being allowed into this temporary sanctum. Annie was looking up at Eren, he had his eyes closed and a small smile plastered on his face, all meanwhile she was trying to figure what he had just said. If she understood correctly, it meant… The implications of such a thing were too much for her to process at the moment, so she kept quiet, waiting for her now inevitable judgment from the scouts.

Soon, there was a banging at the door. Eren turned his gaze to the door, seeing how the people at the other side were battering it again, and again, and again until it gave way. Showing captain Levi, Mikasa, Armin and Jean entering the room.

Levi was not expecting his evening to go like this. When the door broke, a small room came into view, a small room that had just gone through a catastrophe, all the furniture was broken, there were pieces of wood and broken glass all over the floor. And there he was, Eren Yeager, leaning against the counter, with blood stains and shit-eating grin, with Annie Leonhart's still body lying next to him. Ackerman ran next to him.

"What took you guys so long?" the cheeky brat dared to even ask.

"Is that Annie?" asked Kirstein as he looked at the scene shocked.

"Yeah, the Female Titan in the flesh."

"Just what were you thinking, Eren!" he said sternly in return, unfazed Eren answered.

"Was looking for the missing piece... Can we talk tomorrow, I'm tired, and have pieces of glass in my back." Levi didn't want to wait for the brat to explain himself, but seeing his condition, and the fact that he had captured the Female Titan for them, gave him some serious leverage. Clicking his tongue, he turned to Ackerman.

"Mikasa, take him to the infirmary" she nodded and started picking him up. Indeed, there were pieces of glass falling off of him. He then turned to Kirstein and Arlert. "You two, help me with her."

As they started taking her, they heard Eren speak from the door, he was looking back at them from his left, meaning that his weird eye was boring on them.

"Say what you want about her, but don't call her a coward. Matter of fact, I think she's braver than all of us put together." With that, he motioned for Mikasa to help him out of there.

* * *

A couple of hours had passed since, Eren was sent back from the infirmary to his quarters along with Mikasa. Lying down on the bed, he let out a sigh his still healing back was getting some rest. Looking up, he noticed that Mikasa was staring at him.

"Did you have to go out on your own?" she said, a bit of edge on her voice.

"Maybe not" he relented. "I was just focusing on ending this quickly rather than anything else."

"They're going to mistrust you if you do that again" she said with a sigh. "You don't have to do things on your own."

Mikasa was right, he knew. He was a bit too used to doing things on his own. Looking back, knowing everything that happened, he wondered if perhaps things could have gone at least a bit better had he been more communicative over his plan. Turning back to Mikasa, he saw her folding her scarf, the scarf that in has and would see so much cruelty, neatly besides her in the bench she was sitting.

"You're gonna spend the night here?" he asked her. She got flustered, seeing Eren's mismatched eyes staring at her. As she tried to say something, he rolled in the bed so there was space for her in it.

"N-No, I'll just sleep here in the bench" she said.

"Don't be stupid, Mikasa" he answered, the light of the room didn't show his face very well, but she could swear his cheeks were pink. "You'll get back pain sleeping there."

Hesitantly, she got in bed. The two looked at each other for some time before Eren closed his eyes. Closing her eyes as well, Mikasa tried to get some rest.

After some time, she felt arms wrapping around her frame, she opened her eyes to see that Eren had closed the distance between them, and was resting his head on top of hers. Taken by surprise, she tried to say something, but before words came out, Eren spoke.

"I've missed you so much" he whispered, his tone shaky and weak.

Bewildered, she wanted to ask what was happening, what was he trying to say. But after some hesitation, decided not to say anything. Instead, she wrapped her arms around Eren's body, and together, they waited for slumber.

* * *

**So, this is it for this week's chapter!**

**This is the point where my story will start to deviate from the canon, let's see where it takes us. ****I am thankful for the support this has been receiving so far, it really is something else for me.**

**I will admit that Eren and Annie's fight in the old Ackerman haven was the catalyst for this little project of mine, so being able to finally publish it is an achievement for me, and hopefully a good start of this 2020.**

**As always, all reviews are welcomed. And I'll be seeing you in the next chapter in the following week. Take care!**


	5. IV: Schemes

**Disclaimer: I do not own the SNK series in any way, shape, or form.**

**A/N at the end of the chapter.**

* * *

During breakfast, the atmosphere in the mess hall felt more relaxed than it had been in days, Armin noted. The news that the Female Titan had been captured last night was quickly spreading throughout the base, and no doubt would leak into the public soon enough.

Sitting with Jean in a small table, they mostly ate in silence. Armin hadn't had a good night's sleep, and judging from Jean's eye bags, he hadn't either. They both had carried Annie's motionless body through the streets of Stohess, dropping her along with Levi and Hanji in the dungeons, where the two veterans would most likely spend some time torturing her. Having to torture Annie was something Armin understood as necessary, but was still uncomfortable with, as until recently he considered her a friend of his in a way.

"I really can't believe they captured it so quickly" he overheard another couple of scouts chatting in a nearby table.

"I know" his mate replied. "I'm sure it's being tortured as we speak."

"Well done. Serves her right for killing all those people."

Armin and Jean looked at each other and returned to their food. Armin was still mulling over the events of the previous night. Why had Eren left to capture Annie on his own, especially so suddenly? He must have planned that thoroughly considering that he left them clues to find him, but if so why not include them in the first place? And there was also the matter of that shelter, how did Eren know about it? It didn't make any sense.

"Was looking for the missing piece..." he muttered, remembering the scene playing out on his head.

"What?" Jean asked.

"Huh? Oh, nothing. Just thinking."

"About last night?" he asked, filling in the gap. Armin nodded. "Yeah, I've been thinking about it as well. Pretty strange what went down. I mean, the bastard disappears for several hours, and then we find him in a weird underground shelter, having beaten Annie."

Armin noticed Mikasa entering the mess hall, coming from the wing of the building where the men's quarters lied. It didn't take much to realize just what that meant, and did his best to conceal a smirk. When she noticed him and Jean, Mikasa made her way to their table, taking a seat next to Armin.

They continued chatting idly for some time, mostly speculating over the events of the night before. It was frustrating for Armin asking questions he had no answers to, but then again he was used to it; he just hoped Eren explained himself soon enough. When Jean excused himself, Armin took the chance to turn to Mikasa.

"You spend the night at Eren's quarter, right?" he asked. Small splashes of pink appeared on his friend's cheeks at the mention.

"I wanted to make sure he was ok" she managed stammer. Mikasa did not need this kind of interactions at the moment, as she was still flustered from the events late last night. She had shared a bed with both Eren and Armin several times when they were younger, especially while they were in that refugee camp. But they were children then, something which was no longer the case. Her heart was beating faster just by thinking of it.

But more than that, it was what Eren said when he wrapped his arms around her that she had no way to interpret. 'I've missed you so much.' The way he said that line, the shaky tone of his voice, how his jaw quivered over her head. She hadn't known how to answer then, and now she was even more bewildered. Something had happened to Eren, she just knew it. From how more affectionate he had been recently, from how he didn't snap about anything really, and from how his gaze no longer had that intensity that for so long was synonymous of him. She didn't know what to do about it, or whether or not she should do something, nevertheless it was worrisome to her.

"You know where he is?" she was taken from her thoughts by Armin. She shook her head.

"He was gone when I woke up."

Armin let out a sigh as he rubbed his eyes. His childhood friend has always tended to things on his own, but this was a new level. He just hoped Eren knew what he was doing, wherever he was.

* * *

He had entered her cell about ten minutes ago, and Annie was getting really sick of him not saying anything. Seemingly just being content by sitting in the only chair in the room, a sick joke considering she was chained to the wall, smoking a cigarette, looking in any direction other than her. She was really pissed at that attitude by Eren, especially after spending the last few hours getting tortured by that mad woman with glasses.

"Speak, damn it!" she shouted. "You come in here and don't say anything! What are you waiting for?!"

"I'm waiting for us to be truly alone" he responded calmly in between drags. A few seconds passed before the sound of the door of the corridor sounding. Her cell was dimly lit, but Annie could see a small smirk appear on his face. "Well, now, what do you want to know?" he asked as he crossed his legs.

"Bastard" she hissed. "How do you know about Marley?!" He looked slightly confused.

"Oh, that" he said scratching his chin. "Yeah, I did kind of slipped that night…"

"Well?!" she asked. If she could tap her feet, she very well would be. He kept rubbing his chin as he leaned from the chair, looking at her, as if noting something of interest in her.

"How do you shit?" he suddenly said, taking a look at her. Caught off guard by such an absurd question, she stuttered not knowing what to say until Eren interrupted her. "I mean, I've been imprisoned a fair amount of times, but never chained to a wall, so this is new ground for me. What do you do if you feel like shitting? You call a guard who brings a latrine, or simply dump it on the floor and someone comes to clean later?"

Eren smiled inwardly, seeing that she lost the initiative. With that, he could redirect the conversation where he wished. He waved his hand, as if brushing the topic away.

"Your trial is in the coming days" he started. "You're mostly likely going to be executed before a cheering crowd, and your body will be dumped in an unmarked hole somewhere, or burned. No one on that room will vouch for you, so you can be certain that you'll be dead by the coming week… Unless you cooperate with me" he mentioned off-handedly at the end.

"I know everything there is to know, you see" he continued. "I know about Marley, the Warriors, about Reiner and Berthold, about Zeke and Pieck, the Galliard brothers. You say it, I probably know about that as well" he shrugged, putting his cigarette out with the sole of his boot. "But, and this is important, I'm not in a position to know these things. I could probably get away with it if I explain the most basic aspects, you know, the old Eldian empire, Marley, the origin of the walls and the titans, that kind of shit. But if I also happen to know who the other shifters are, or why are you here, that would start to raise suspicion, and that could cause a trainwreck if handled improperly, and I'd rather not risk that to begin with. Besides my knowledge is only useful if I do not interfere directly too much. Luckily for me, you were born in Marley, you know who the Armored and Colossal titans are, and what your mission is. "

Seeing where he was going, Annie frowned. "What do you want from me?" she asked aggressively.

"I could convince commander Erwin to apply the same treatment he did on me to you, to take you in the Scouts and use you for the recapture of Wall Maria" he said as he got up from the chair and started roaming the small cell. "It'd be tough for you, far more than it was for me, seeing that you actually killed soldiers and all that. You'd have to use the knowledge of Marley for your defense, and play the whole 'I know their methods, you'll need me when they inevitably attack,' and that much would be true." His hand was drawing circles as he circled round the room, his mismatched stare always on her eyes. "No one in Paradis might ever trust you again, most will certainly hate your guts. But you don't need to be their object of adoration for them to keep you alive, just being useful will do."

"Why would you think I'd go with that?" Annie said defiantly, her gaze fixed on him. Smiling, Eren took the chair, got it just in front of her and sat, resting his head on his hand as he looked up at her. Their gazes mere centimeters apart.

"Because your mission has failed" he said matter-of-factly. "The founding titan doesn't exist anymore, and Reiner and Berthold will not be leaving this island alive if I can help it. If you want to see your father again, I'm your only option to do so. Didn't you promise him to return home?"

Her eyes went wide, and no other words left her mouth. Eren let her process what she heard for some seconds, before doing the question.

"Can I count on you, Annie?" She remained silent for long time, looking down. Eren sat in anticipation, _come on _he thought_ don't make this more difficult than it already is, Annie. Make the right decision. _He was about to ask again when he saw her gave a nod. A small smile came to his lips as he put his hand on her shoulder.

"I'll find a way for Erwin to back you up" he said reassuringly. "I won't be able to attend your trial; the coming days will be hectic. It'll be up to him, and you, to save yourself there. Next time we meet, I'll fil you in on the details of the situation." As he was walking out of the cell, Annie's voice caught his attention.

"How do you know all of this?" she asked one more time. Looking back at her, he reasoned that, since they two were on the same ship from then on, he might as well let her in.

"This is not my first time doing this" he said softly as he looked down. "This will not be easy, Annie, we'll be dancing around getting ourselves killed on every corner. But when we make it, we may just be able to put an end to all this senseless hatred and ensure a peaceful existence for us. Keep yourself alive, Annie, you still have a promise to fulfill."

With that, Eren left, humming a tune Annie could swear she had listened before.

* * *

"Hanji" a voice called her attention, looking up from her microscope to see Levi entering her study. "You got a second?"

Shifting over her desk so she could face him, Hanji was intrigued over what the good captain might have to say. "Sure, Levi, what is it?"

"Did you allow Eren to visit the Female Titan unsupervised earlier today?" he asked flatly.

"I was going to stay in the back and eavesdrop on them, but he wouldn't speak until I left the room" she said nonchalantly.

"So you just left?" he frowned at her.

"Well, yes." Levi sighed in frustration. "I don't see too much issue at the end of the day, to be honest, he may just have wanted some answers from her."

"Answers?" She nodded, she noted he was looking away.

"Is something wrong, Levi?"

_Are you looking for the right perspective, you brat?_ Levi asked himself. Noticing Hanji looking at him worriedly, he shook his head. "It's nothing."

After some thinking, Hanji decided not to dwell on the poor captain, and in turn shrug. "If you want to ask Eren personally, Erwin summoned him to interrogate him on his actions in about an hour. I don't think he would mind if you join in. You're the boy's direct superior, after all."

"Maybe…" he said, still lost in his thoughts. Maybe he should be there in that meeting, he might as well figure out what was going on in the brat's head. He decided to shift topics. "Speaking of the Female Titan, you got something out of her?"

"Nothing, spent hours with my favorite play things on her, still wouldn't say a word. Tough bitch that one… I was thinking that we could conduct a few experiments on her, you know? To further expand my research."

"Not gonna happen, four eyes, we're not giving her a chance at escaping. Besides, haven't you got enough notes from Eren's experiments?"

"We can never have enough notes!" she exclaimed.

"Tch, those'll have to do" he said before leaving. He had a meeting to attend.

* * *

_The smell of smog was probably the hardest part of Phrygia for him to get used to. Being one of the centers for industry and an important shipyard in the Marleyan Empire, there were dozens upon dozens of buildings emitting the disgusting columns of black smoke upon the sky, so big that even the wealthier neighborhoods further inland could see them smearing the landscape. _

_Sitting on top of one of an apartment complex near downtown, he witnessed the rally take place, covering himself from the reek with the scarf, dampened by the rain, the cold breeze making his recently shaved head shiver. Election year was coming upon the nation, something he had never even heard of until then. The idea that the citizenry chose the legislature of the empire might have intrigued him in other times, but was mostly apathetic towards it now, a sentiment very prevalent among the gang members. Cook, one of his direct bosses, had even congratulated him when he heard of his apathy._

_On the plaza he was overlooking was occurring a really by the current major of the city, some fat fuck member of the Marleyan National Party. He looked like a swell guy through the scope of his rifle, and considering why he had been sent there, the man, in some form, was. _

_Albert had called him that morning. He was in his office, behind the bar they used as a front. There was no one else outside of the two. When he entered, the heir to the Entrechteten offered him a cup, which he took._

"_I have a special job for you today, Eren" piercing blue eyes boring onto his subdued green ones. "Major Clausewitz has been a making a campaign for reelecting himself on a basis for his purging of corruption. And he has, which is good for the populace, but bad for us."_

"_Do you want me to take him out?" he asked preemptively. Albert Smith was not one to like being interrupted normaly, but he seemed to tolerate his to a certain point, maybe it was because he was the gangster's personal dog._

"_He'll hold a rally this afternoon in the lower part of the city, not too far from the Eldian ghetto. The eldians, they hate his guts, especially after enforcing the segregation more along the lines of Liberio than it has before. So it is known there's bad blood between them. As for your job, we managed to get our hands on a rifle who goes back to a prominent restorationist. All you have to do is kill the major, and leave the weapon."_

_Albert didn't tell him the rest of his plan, then again, he was no one to know. But he could make a rough picture of what would happen. The assassination would be blamed on the local eldians, causing public outcry and divert police attention off the Entrechteten's operations, which would give them the space to consolidate and even expand their power. He had to give it to Al, he was the leader of this branch for a reason after all._

_With his gloves fixed he turned to focus on his target, he noticed that the major was accompanied by his wife and daughter. Couldn't he do a job without being reminded of what a monster he was? He clicked his tongue in annoyance. After making the last adjustments, he lined the shot. And as he prepared for the moment, he started humming the song his landlord tended to sing._

"_Are you going to Scarborough Fair?_

_Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme_

_Remember me to one who lives there_

_She once was a true love of mine"_

_As he finished the last line, he took the shot. It hit the target. Blood flying amongst the calm rain, screams silencing the band's upbeat tune._

* * *

The door to Erwin's office opened to show Eren Yeager enter. He carried a solemn look on his face when he made a small salute and took a seat opposite to Erwin, Levi stood behind the commander, leaning against the wall of the small room.

"You wanted to see me" Eren spoke.

"Yes" Erwin nodded. "First of all, you abandoned your post without an explanation. For several hours nothing was known about your whereabouts. Protocol demands your punishment for such an offense" he said stoically. In normal circumstances, such actions demanded at least the discharge of the soldier, or downright a direct execution. But these were not normal circumstances, and Eren was no normal soldier. "But considering that you captured the Female Titan without any casualties or collateral damage, I'll allow you to go off with a warning, and let Levi think of how to discipline you."

"Thank you, sir" said Eren.

"Now, I want to ask you. What made you think that going after the Female Titan on your own was a good idea?"

"Because the alternative would've been catastrophic, sir."

Shifting in his chair, Erwin arched an eyebrow. "Care to explain what do you mean?"

"Yes… The previous night I had a dream, which showed me and the Female Titan fighting in Stohess, causing lots of destruction in its wake. I decided to circumvent that from the root."

"A dream you say…"

Eren gave a sigh as he thought of what to say exactly. _Well, here goes nothing._

"Ever since my trial, I've been getting strange dreams" he started. "I didn't mention them before because they were vague and could very well mean nothing. But, I had the feeling that there was something important being said there, and that I just needed a few missing pieces for all to make sense. That is why I wanted to talk to Annie Leonhart earlier today, to see if I could make sense of it all."

"And well, did it pay off?" asked the Commander of the Survey Corps. Eren gave a firm nod.

"Yes, now that I know that these dreams were factual I have knowledge that is important for you to hear. It is knowledge about the origin of titans, and the walls."

Taken aback by the topic, Erwin's widened. He motioned for Eren to proceed.

"This is not easy to say, so I'll just say it: everything we think we know is a lie. We are not the last bastion of humanity in a world overrun by titans. We are but a hermit kingdom, the remains of a once powerful nation called the Eldian Empire. A hundred years ago, the eldians were fighting an insurrection by one of their subjects, the Marleyans, and they were losing. In a last ditch effort to save his people, the 145th king, Karl Fritz, translated as many eldians to an island called Paradis. He built the walls and sent the threat that if any nation broke the peace of his people, the world would be trampled."

"The earth would be trampled" Levi repeated behind Erwin. "How did he plan to do that?"

"The eldian people have something that separates them from any other in the world. Thousands of years ago there was this figure, Ymir Fritz. She received the power to turn into a titan, and her decedents are also capable of doing so. The eldian people are also referred to as the Subject of Ymir, and are the only ones who can turn into titans. The king of the Eldians possess the most powerful titan ability, known as the Founding Titan; it was with this ability that Karl Fritz created thousands of Colossal titans, which were used for the creation of the walls. He also erased the memories of all eldians inside the walls, to keep them from suffering."

Processing what he just heard, Erwin was wide-eyed when confronted with all the implications of what he had just heard. His father was right after all. Then, it dawned on him.

"But, if only eldians can turn into titans, where do they come from?" he asked.

"There are still many eldians living in the outside world. Marley has been sending them here to Paradis, to turn them into titans as punishment."

"So… all titans…" Levi muttered, seemingly to himself as his gaze hit the floor. Eren nodded, his eyes closed.

"Anything else?" asked the Commander.

"Yes, the royal family, the real royal family, went into hiding after erasing the people's memories. They go now by the Reiss name, and installed a puppet government in their stead." Erwin processed the information he was fed, and after feeling he had a grip on what was revealed, he pressed Eren.

"This is a very… interesting turn of events, Eren. However, I fell I need to ask, is there any evidence supporting your tale?" The boy in return, turned his face to the commander's and nodded.

"I am convinced that the basement in my old home in Shiganshina has evidence that supports it. You could always corroborate the part of the walls, all needed is to make a hole in the structure… Regarding the Reiss, they have a few proxies by which they impose their will, the nobility and the Order of the Walls… And we also have Annie."

"You think Annie Leonhart is one of those eldians born in Marley?"

"I know that she is, it would explain her motives for her actions. Speaking of her" Eren paused to make sure the two officers were listening. "For all the bad blood between us and her, I'd suggest against killing her. She could prove a valuable resource in the recapture of Wall Maria, and more importantly, against Marley."

"You think we can trust her?" Erwin asked with certain suspicion. Eren shook his head.

"She doesn't need to be trustworthy if she proves to be useful, we can keep her on a leash if need be. We still have the Armored and Colossal titan out there to worry about, and who knows if Marley has already sent other forces to back them up. We need any weapon we can get. If we show her that it's best for Annie to work with us, and keep a close eye on her for good measure, she could very well become a powerful asset in the wars to come."

"I see" Erwin muttered while considering the idea. Truth be told, he would be more comfortable if they just killed the Female Titan and be done with her, but there was merit to Eren's idea. "I'll take your idea in consideration. Annie's trial will be in the coming days, and myself and Levi will be attending, as is required. You think we can turn Annie over to our side, Eren?"

"I think it's possible, it's all a matter of finding out what she wants, and prove her that we are her best bet at getting it."

"Very well, if you manage to convince her, I'll consider your idea and vouch for her. You may leave."

With that, Eren stood up, made a small salute, and left. Leaving the two men alone.

"What do you think, Erwin?" asked Levi, his voice low. Erwin hummed.

"If his tale is true, this whole situation is a lot bigger than we ever thought of" he muttered. "Levi, send a small team to corroborate the walls, I'll send word to Pixis so he is notified of our actions. I also want someone of trust to look up the activities of the Reiss, and report anything that might be worth of mention, no matter how small it may seem. Bring Hanji into the fold, and have her look into the Order of the Walls. The local pastor is a high ranking member; she could start there. After you gather all you can dig, catch me up in the trial, so we can plan our next move."

After Levi left the office, Erwin remained seated, thinking about all that had just transpired. It would an understatement to say that, if his claims are true, Eren Yeager had just turn the entire world upside down. A small smile appeared on his lips, _father _he thought, _you may have been right all along._

* * *

**So, this is it for this chapter.**

**A more relaxed chapter, to give a bit of a rest as we're about to head into the Clash of Titans Arc and Annie's trial.**

**A serious question for you folks: Are you interested in me making a prequel of this story, about Eren's time in Marley? I already have a few storylines for that one basically ready, they just need to be written. But I'm a bit hesitant mostly because 1)Eren as a character would remain static for the lenght of the run, as that time serves as his darkest hour, from which he justs overcomes in this story. 2)Because that story would follow a more episodic structure rather than a overarching narrative, which is something I haven't tried writing yet, so I don't know how would that one turn out.**

**Anyway, I'd love to hear your opinion on that matter.**

**Also, this is the last chapter I had ready made when I first started publishing, so updates might become more sporadic. I'll still attempt to publish at least a couple of times per month. So beware that the upload schedule has essentially ceased to exist.**

**And as always, all reviews are welcomed. Until next time!**


	6. V: Open Roads

**Disclaimer: I do not own the SNK series in any way, shape or form**

**Note: Timeline in this chapter is a bit all over the place, and some events happen in different time, full explanation in A/N at the end.**

* * *

Sunset was nearing as the scouts were riding towards the castle were they were to take refuge for the evening. Lead by Nanaba and that other member of the Squad Mike, Ymir and the others rode through the road. The dimming light making the distinction between the path and its surrounding more and more blurry.

Keeping a steady pace in the middle of the make-shift formation, Ymir kept a blank face, saving her uneasiness of the situation to herself. Her and Krista's team met up with the other team, the in which Reiner, Berthold and Connie were in, about half an hour ago. They came with reports that the village they went to evacuate was gone, all inhabitants disappeared, leaving only the houses and, what put her off personally, the horses. Something fucked up most have happened. When she suggested that the titans got to them, they retorted that if that was the case, they would have found a massacre instead of a ghost town. And, to add to the oddity, they only found one titan, one whose legs were too weak to hold it up, so no one knew how it got there to begin with. _Something really fucked up's going on here _she said to herself while mulling over what was happening.

Looking back, she saw that Krista carried a tense look on her face. If Ymir was to guess, she was also thinking about in just what they got themselves into.

"Hey" she called, "you okay?" Krista blinked as she was pulled from her mind

"Yes, just worried" she managed to answer.

"We're not too far from castle Utgard" Nanaba said, she must have overheard them. "We should be able the spend the night there just fine." Krista nodded, though she still looked troubled. Another scout, the one with the weird hair sighed.

"Just when we thought things were starting to look up" he said. "How the hell they even managed to break through Wall Rose?"

"Were things looking up, though?" Ymir muttered to herself, as she remembered a strange exchange she had the other day.

It was the night before the launch of the expedition, she was assigned guard duty. She was prepared for a boring night, just idly walking around the halls, maybe take a small nap and so. As she walked, complaining inwardly about her desire to go her quarters, she was taken back to the present when she noticed a figure just at the end of the hall. She called to it, and the figure approached her, revealing none other than the suicidal bastard himself.

"What are you doing up in the middle of the night, Eren?" she asked as her posture relaxed a little.

"Couldn't sleep" he answered casually.

"Didn't take you for one for getting nervous" she said sarcastically. Eren shrugged as he joined her walking through the empty, dark hall.

"There's always more than meets the surface" he said. "Thought you knew that better than anyone."

"What is that supposed to mean?" she asked sharply, her eye narrowing.

"Oh, you know, big and strong Ymir hanging out with sweet and delicate Krista. I guess we all have our soft spots." She simply shrugged, relaxing once again.

"What can I say? Krista's great." The two continued walking silently through the halls of her end of the castle. As they went outside onto a section of the walls, Ymir was grateful to see the starlight shining over the earth, a nice change from the dark corridors, lit slightly by candlelight. Her small moment was interrupted by Eren, though.

"Speaking of Krista" he said nonchalantly, "when are you telling her you can also turn into a titan?" Wide-eyed and caught off guard, Ymir quickly shifted to see Eren, He was looking at her, those mismatched eyes of his coldly reading her reaction, a small mile appearing on his lips. Pushing him onto the wall behind him, she glared daggers at his still nonchalant expression.

"How the fuck do you know?!" she whispered with venom on her tongue.

"Does it matter?"

"Yes! Yes, it fucking matters" she hissed. Blowing through his nostrils, Eren lifted his hands.

"Just know that I have my means" he said. "Look, Ymir, I'm not your enemy, if I was, you'd be getting dissected right now. The question right now is: are you my enemy, though? You know what's outside the walls, and that if we are to beat Marley, we'll need every advantage we can get." Letting go of him, Ymir looked away.

"You think you walldians have a chance?" she asked.

"Why not?" he answered, dusting off his jacket. "Marley won the Great Titan War, against all odds, and managed to get seven of the nine no less. Why can't that be repeated?"

"That's easy for you to say…" she muttered. Seeing her still being hesitant, Eren sighed.

"Look, I'm not gonna hold your hand and tell you that everything's gonna be alright; I'd just be bullshitting you if I did. Just know that we do have a chance, and that we're not down until we give up..." he turned to look at the field that lied in front of them. "I am not your enemy Ymir, I mean it. But if you prove to be mine, I'm willing to do anything if it means keeping my loved ones safe…" He turned his back on her and started walking back into the hall they came from. "Just keep that in mind" he said without looking back.

That conversation she'd had with Eren was still replaying in Ymir's head by the time they made it inside the castle. Nanaba and the other veteran were giving instructions where to put the horses and where exactly they'd be spending the night. As she walked into the run-down tower, Ymir looked at Krista behind her. Did they really have a chance? She couldn't tell, and experience told her that, when in doubt, she should stick to herself.

But she did agree with Eren on something, keeping her loved ones safe was indispensable.

* * *

The journey through the roads of the interior of Wall Sina was awfully silent. They had departed under the cover of night, shortly after midnight. Officially that was justified that doing so would prevent a mob from gathering at the extraction of the Female Titan, leading to a possible riot. But Erwin had two other motives to get moving as quickly as possible.

The first was that he had arranged a meeting with Commander Pixis in the early hours of the morning. An unofficial meeting where they would discuss the information Erwin had received the prior day by Eren Yeager. He was fairly confident that Dot wouldn't take too much to be swayed into their camp for the plans already forming inside the commander of the Survey Corps.

That led to his second reason to evacuate so suddenly from Stohess. By beginning the process of the trial as quickly as possible, he would be leaving a lot of space for Levi and Hanji to act on their respective assignments without too much attention, as most would turn towards the trial.

He had met shortly with both of his confidants before departing, where they went again over what each would be doing. Levi would depart the next morning to an already-decided place where they would make a carving in the wall, to confirm Eren's allegation. Meanwhile Hanji would be digging into the Reiss family, she was ordered to document any suspicious behavior, no matter how small or seemingly inconsequential. After both finished, they would meet to exchange information, after which Levi would go to the capital and inform Erwin over the result of the investigation, and Hanji would remain in command while they were off in the trial.

Erwin had decided to depart in a small group, of a single carriage with a small, almost token, guard to keep the movement as swift as possible. Time was right now of significant importance, any minute saved on this trip could make a world of difference. Sitting inside the carriage, he looked over to the other passenger, gagged and bound in hands and feet.

To think that this short blond girl, who had barely even graduated, was the Female Titan, the one single-handedly derailed the 57th Expedition, cut the Special Operation Squad in half, furtively killed Hanji's two captured titans and, if tale be true, had been behind the fall of Wall Maria and had successfully infiltrated into the society of the walls for five years. If anything, this girl had proved to be resourceful, capable as a fighter and an operative in subterfuge, something he had to admit they were sorely lacking in. Eren's proposal of incorporating Annie Leonhart as an asset to their cause ringed in his head, and in spite of all the damage she had done, Erwin found himself seriously considering it.

Seeing her in this state, he noted how Leonhart's eyes were looking out into the passing field, blues eyes not reflecting malice, but resignation, boredom even. The head of the Survey Corps wondered what approach would work the best in the courtroom for convincing Zackly, Nile and the others to let the Survey Corps to keep and employ her as an asset in their future operations. Unlike with Eren, Leonhart had actually been responsible for several deaths. On that note, having her being admitted into the Scouts would generate a lot of tension and resentment amongst his troops, something Erwin could hardly afford. Levi wouldn't like that, but he wouldn't go against Erwin's orders. But everyone else? That was harder to answer. Nevertheless, he had to go through with this, the rewards for having her on their side would be too great to simply ignore.

_Speaking of it, this might be a good moment to start swaying her to our side _Erwin thought as he inclined forward to remove the gag from her. She eyed him curiously.

"It is dangerous to leave an opening for a shifter to turn" she said in a raspy voice, as her throat was dry. Erwin offered her some water, which she took.

"It is also difficult to have a conversation with someone who's gagged" he retorted.

"What is there to talk about?" Leonhart asked, disinterested. She knew that she could probably afford not to play aloof, but Annie supposed that she could take the opportunity to see Erwin Smith in action. Eren had visited her again the previous night, keeping it short as to not raise suspicion. She still didn't like that she was still being kept in the shadows as to what exactly he was planning to do, but he had assured her that right now she should focus exclusively on her trial. It irritated her, but guessed she couldn't help it.

"Quite a lot, actually" Erwin said. "I'm going to be straight. We have received some intriguing information. Information that you could help verify."

"That would depend on the information you wish to verify."

"It has come to us of the existence of a nation outside of the walls named Marley, is that correct?"

"Yes" she said after a few seconds, nodding to emphasize. "There are dozens of nations outside of these walls, in fact."

"What can you tell me about it, Marley?" Erwin asked, keeping his excitement about finally learning about the outside world far away from his tone. On her part, Annie hummed, as she collected her thoughts on her oh-so-beloved fatherland.

"Marley is the most powerful nation in the world at the moment, its territory covering most of the old Eldian Empire. It is currently uncontested in its position as they are the holders of most of the eldian population, and have seven of the nine titan shifter powers."

"The eldians, they are the people we belong to, right?"

"Yes. We're also known as the subjects of Ymir. Other names worth mentioning involve: devils, vermin, maggots, and undesirables."

"I see… We're not well thought of in the outside world."

"The story goes that the old Eldian Empire was tyrannical and genocidal. True or not, doesn't matter, the reputation and the baggage stuck."

"Is there anything else worth mentioning." Annie stop to think for a few instants.

"Hmm. Even though Marley is the undisputed superpower of the world, it is feared that the advancement of conventional weapons will close the gap in the not-so-distant future. That's all I can think of at the moment."

"Very well. Thank you" Erwin said, nodding gratefully. "Now, to a more immediate matter: If we the Survey Corps take you into our ranks, how can we be sure that you'll remain loyal to us and our cause?"

"I won't be loyal. I have one goal, and one goal only. When I left for this island, I promised my father back in Marley that I would return to him no matter what. And I intent to fulfill that promise. Whether I do so as a hero for Marley or as liberator for the Eldian people is insignificant for me, it always has been… The moment my former comrades find about my desertion you people will be my only ticket home. Is that a good enough answer for you, commander?"

"I suppose it will do. I appreciate your honesty, Annie."

"What can we expect of Marley in the immediate future."

"There's the two others Warriors infiltrated in your ranks, the holders of the Armored and Colossal Titans. They can also employ the two other shifters, the Beast and Cart Titans, who as I far as I know are standing by back home. I doubt Marley would employ little more than that, as they are over-reliant on their titan powers, and don't know what Paradis is capable of."

"You know who those infiltrators are?" She nodded with slight hesitance. "Can you tell me their names?"

Annie kept quiet for a bit. She knew that the moment she gave the names away, she would be considered by Marley as an enemy from that point on. She would no longer be welcomed home as a Warrior, but as just another of the infamous island devil of Paradis, if not worse. Was she ready to go through with that? To go against everything she once knew? She had never been the best team player, but even Annie grew a bond with her fellow Warriors, even the obnoxious and fake Reiner. She remembered what she had told him shortly after Marcel's death _"Marley, Eldia, fuck them all! They're liars, the lot of them! They only think about themselves! And so do I! I have to survive! I have to get home!" _Not her proudest moment really, she was stressed, fatigued and beaten. It was really a miracle she had agreed to carry on. And here she was, about to betray them, all to fulfill her promise. Her heart sunk as she spoke.

"Reiner Braun and Berthold Hoover... They're both members of the Scouting Legion."

* * *

It was well into the afternoon when the team Levi had gathered for the task reached a part of the wall isolated enough for them to start working. His team consisted of the motley crew he had formed a few nights ago to find Eren, along with the brat himself. They were about twenty kilometers from the gate of Stohess, an uncomfortable distance if someone asked Levi, but they needed the space to operate undisturbed.

With help from their ODM gear they had spent nearly one hour now carefully making a hole in the structure. It was a slow and tedious process doing so without causing damage, so as the blocks could be put back once they were finished and everyone would be none the wiser. The fact that about twenty minutes ago it started raining didn't either.

Occasionally either Armin or Jean would ask him about the purpose of this strange task. They stop asking when he vaguely answered that Erwin wanted to confirm something, but they clearly remained restless. Thankfully for Levi, both Eren and Mikasa remained quiet as they worked. Speaking of Ackerman, he had noted that she had been significantly less hostile to him these past few days. Whether she had actually warmed up to him or simply took acting lessons he didn't know, but it was nice not dealing with her staring daggers on his back.

Eren for his part, had mostly remained content not adding anything of importance to the conversation, making small talk with the other members of the team, as if this completely unimportant to him. Levi wouldn't call himself a master at reading people, more than once his judgement had been proven wrong; but the way Eren carried himself reminded Levi of one those priests of the walls when holding mass. How they acted like the nicest, most swell people you could encounter, acting as if they weren't scheming bastards who with an agenda. He wouldn't go out and say it, though. So far, Eren had proven to be fairly trustworthy and reliable. But perhaps he should keep a close eye on the brat, just in case.

"You guys hear that?" asked Armin while knocking on the block in front of him. "It's hollow from here." The others made their own attempts to confirm. Indeed, there was a hollow space behind this set in front of them.

He wouldn't admit it, but Levi was unnerved at that. If the walls did have titans inside of them, then that would support that Eren's tale was true. It would prove that titans were humans. It would prove that Levi was still a murderer. He shook those thoughts away; now was not the time. Putting his tools to use, he and the others quickly worked through the last layer between them and the answer.

After a few more minutes, a pitched scream came from Jean. Turning to him, Levi saw Jean holding onto his gear as he momentarily lost balance.

"What in the fuck is that?!" he yelled as he regained composure. Slowly, the others were taking their respective blocks off, all showed faces of disbelief as the face of a titan stood before them.

Wide-eyed, Levi ordered them to the top of the wall so they could focus.

"T-That's a titan" stammered Armin. "A titan inside of the wall…"

"How did it get there?" asked Jean as his shock was wrapped in anger.

"I-I… I think it's always been there" Armin said, _he's quickly putting it together_ thought Levi.

"It's always been there…" whispered Mikasa as she looked over the edge towards the opening in the wall.

"How else can we explain that?" the blond boy asked. He then turned towards the captain. "You knew about this?"

Levi had to give it to him, Armin Arlert's best weapon was his brain. "We received from a source about this, Erwin wanted me to confirm it before anything else while he was away at the trial."

"A source you say?" intervened Jean. "Who? Who would know such a thing and keep it to himself." Levi quickly glanced at Eren, who was standing behind the others. He shook his head and made a signal with his hand, signal which Levi quickly got _damn brat_.

"A source which wishes to remain anonymous" the captain answered. "That's all you need to know." Taking a heavy breath, Levi tried to skip past the shock of the discovery to assess what he needed to do next. First of all, he needed to get out of here, and make sure to leave to trace of them ever being there. Secondly, he had to meet up with Hanji and get what she got from her digging. And with the complete information, he had to catch up with Erwin, both for filling him in and to attend the Female Titan's trial.

"We need to seal the breach, as quickly as possible" he ordered as he was starting to prepare, his boots were damp and filled with mud from the rain, it would be a pain to clean them. "Then, we go back to Stohess. Also, I don't want you to say a word about this, to anyone. Understood" They nodded, giving another glance at Eren, he saw he fixing his cloak so his face would be covered.

"Good" the captain said. "Let's get to it."

* * *

Back at Stohess, captain Levi quickly went to meet up with squad leader Hanji, Eren shortly behind him. No doubt he following Levi while the others didn't may have raised some suspicion, Eren mused, but he could always use the 'official Levi squad business' excuse if it came to it. He hated having to lie to his friends, but right now he didn't see any other way, to an extent he hoped there wasn't. _I'm going to tell them _he promised himself once again.

Entering into Hanji's office, Levi and Eren quickly moved over to her, who was sitting in her desk with a myriad of papers scattered everywhere.

"Any luck?" asked Levi. Hanji pouted.

"Not much. This Rod Reiss seems like just another noble. He likes to keep a low profile."

"Not surprising" said the captain. "If he is indeed the power behind the throne, I'd want to keep me in the down-low."

"Apparently being part of a shadowy government is a lifestyle" Hanji agreed with a shrug. "I did find something interesting. Two things in fact." Eren and Levi leaned.

"First" she opened, "the very day Wall Maria fell, his estate got attacked by bandits, the report says. Rod being the only survivor. Doesn't that seem like a little too big of a coincidence." This was all old news to Eren, he knew far too well that it was his father Grisha, who motivated by himself, killed as many of the Reiss as possible and stole the Founding Titan. He briefly wondered how could that have happened in this timeline, since this Eren died fairly early on, and therefore couldn't enter the Paths to ensure that happened. He quickly brushed it aside for later, as he needed to refocus on the conversation.

"Secondly, just when I thought there was nothing else on him to find, I come across a document hidden below a hidden cabinet. A document of recognition of a bastard daughter, by the name of Historia. Signed just after the fall of Wall Maria and the attack on his estate."

"Could you find something about this Historia?" asked Levi. Hanji shook her head as she took the document out.

"Nothing other than this."

"Can I take a look?" Eren asked extending his hand. Hanji nodded and handed him the document. He had never actually seen this document last time around, so this was a first time for him. Skimming through it, he looked for anything that could help them set them on the right course naturally. Then he saw it.

"Hmm, her description is similar to someone in our training corps" he said. Seeing that Levi and Hanji gained a quick interest to that, he proceeded. "I mean, there was a girl over who had a very similar build to the one described here: short stature, blue eyes, golden hair, light skin, and all that. Plus, I think she had the very same birthday." Hanji's interest was so great that now she was leaning mere centimeters away from him.

"Don't make me wait, damn it. Do you have that girl's name?!" Eren nodded.

"She went by Krista Lenz, and she enrolled in the Survey Corps."

* * *

**And that would be it for this chapter!**

**I want to apologize, this took longer to complete longer than expected. A mixture of unrelated affairs, writer's block and general procrastination make for a powerful combo, I have discovered.**

**Now, as I already noted at the top, this chapter, and spoiler alert the next couple, have a pretty non-linear timeline. This is mostly because as I went through these events, I found that for a good deal of time, the only character whose arc keeps moving is Annie's. And, as much as I like Annie as a character, I don't want to make it feel as if the rest of the story is on halt as her affair is solved. And so my solution is to have the whole of Annie's trail happen simultaneously to that of the preamble to my version of the Clash of the Titans Arc. By the time we get really moving, this small issue should be solved and the timeline of events should remain pretty straight-forward.**

**I promise it won't take so long to publish the next chapter.**

**And with that out of the way, I'll see you next time!**


	7. VI: Judgement

**Disclaimer: I do not own the SNK series in any way, shape or form.**

**A.N at the end of the chapter.**

* * *

Entering into the courtroom, Annie was inwardly dreading for what would happen in the next few hours. The room in and of itself was far differently than those in Marley. With a sole, immense room of grey with a large imposing podium where the Supreme Commander was already waiting for them. A large, detailed painting on the ceiling, as if they expected someone to just lie down to look at it. On her left lied the higher officers of both the Survey Corps and the Garrison Regiment, with the Military Police lied on her right, along with several nobles and members of the Cult of the Walls. There were a few civilians in the stands behind her, though the numbers were laughably low for a trial of this significance she mused. As she was cuffed to the small column in the middle of the room, a sensation of foreboding invaded her, as if the implications of whatever would happen finally stopped being mere abstractions, but hard unavoidable realities.

The Supreme Commander finally looked down at her from her podium, fixing his glasses reflecting a glint that bore into her eyes, making here to look away. "This is happening again a lot sooner one would expect" the commander said as he poured water into his glass. "Let's get started."

"Your name is Annie Leonhart, correct?" The tone in which the Supreme Commander spoke in was one which faintly reminded Annie of General Magath, all-business and unwavering in its authority. She nodded. "A soldier who took an oath to dedicate your life for the# wellbeing of humanity. Is that correct?"

"I did, sir" she answered faintly. She had technically taken that oath. She supposed it didn't matter to them if she had meant it. The man in his podium nodded.

"Given the fact that there is no legal process for dealing with your kind" he read from the document in his hand, "your fate shall be placed on the hands of the present Military Tribunal, instead of the regular civilian processes. And, therefore, the final word of your sentence will be solely up to me. Today shall be decided whether or not you live, understood?"

"Yes sir" she said meekly.

"Your case might be considered by some of the presents as similar to the one we experienced two months ago with Eren Yeager. But considering that unlike him, you have been identified as responsible for the death of twelve members of the Scouting Legion, along with several more casualties, during the 57th Expedition, the opinion towards you shall be far more severe. Do you have any objections?" Annie shook her head.

"None, sir." _At least none that you'd care about _she thought with bitterness_._

As the formalities were developing, at the left stand, Erwin and Levi stood at the front of the small detachment of the Survey Corps. In spite of their blank faces and attentive eyes, both of their minds were racing.

Levi was thinking about the small exchange he and Erwin had had before the trial. He had arrived late at night the night previous. After taking a small rest, he had met with the commander to discuss both of their finding.

"Did you and Hanji find something?" he asked. The captain nodded.

"We both did. There are indeed titans inside of the walls, saw it with my own eyes" he explained. "When we returned, Eren and I met with Hanji. Her investigation into that Reiss fella shows that the day Wall Maria fell, his estate was attacked by "bandits" he was the only survivor. We also found that he adopted a bastard daughter shortly thereafter, she graduated into the scouts this year." Erwin's reaction at that had been shocked. He then explained Levi that the Female Titan had given away the names of both her accomplices, and both were also inside this new patch of scouts. Levi snorted at the revelation.

"Apparently the scouts tend to attract people with dark secrets" he had commented sardonically.

"When we're done here" Erwin said, "we need to round up and secure those three. Having the heir to the real power behind the throne would give the leverage necessary for us to proceed with our operations without their intervention."

"Or at the contrary" Levi countered, "will move them against us." Erwin didn't seem too worried about it.

"We would have two titans on our side if they try something." Levi looked away, to say he was still bitter about the deaths of Gunther and Oluo would be an understatement. If it was up to him, that blond bitch would be dog treats by this point.

"You think we can get her?" he asked. Erwin nodded.

"I'm confident that we can get Leonhart on our hands." Erwin must have noticed the look on Levi's face. "I know that you hate her, rightfully so. Nevertheless, I'm assigning her to your squad when we're done here."

Levi's eyes had widened. "You're gonna trust me with taking care of it?"

"I am trusting you with making sure that she does not make a false move. If she does, I am certain you will end her. I also trust you enough to be sure you won't do anything unless you consider it completely necessary." Those words had been enough for Levi to grit his teeth before muttering his compliance.

Looking up to him, the captain looked at the expression of Erwin as he listened to Zackly's words. He trusted the man, he simply hoped he knew what he was doing.

In the courtroom, the head of the Military Police, Nile Dok, stepped forward. A grim look covered his face.

"Commander Dok, what is the suggestion of the Military Police as to what to do with her?" asked Zackly.

"Sire, Annie Leonhart was a joined member of the Military Police. Her betrayal is a special affront towards us who swore to upheld the king's peace. As such, we suggest an immediate and public execution towards her. May the citizenry cheer her death and the hells eternalize her suffering."

Annie resisted to urge to roll her eyes at that. _Oh boohoo, I'm hurting the corrupt regiment's reputation _she wanted to say_. Cry me a fucking river._

"Commander Pixis" Zackly proceeded, "what would the Garrison Regiment do to her?" The bald leader of the rosy troop cleared his throat.

"The Garrison Regiment doesn't have any intention with regards to the fate of the miss. We will back the plan of action of the Survey Corps, as we believe they have proven capable of handling the situation better than any other faction."

Erwin listened to Pixis attentively, satisfied that he had agreed to back the scouts again. The two leaders had an unofficial meeting just after Erwin got to the city. It didn't take much to convince Pixis to back him in the trial, the old man had always been amongst the most perspective in the whole military.

"Very well" Zackly said. "With that in mind, what would the Scouting Legion do to Annie Leonhart?"

"Sir, the plan we have for the Female Titan is the following one. We shall enroll her into our ranks, where she would be employed as an asset in our operation to retake Wall Maria" some murmurs were already, some of the clearer ones calling such a thing outrageous. "After such, her usefulness will be revalued based on what is discovered about the outside world, whether her execution or continue use against the enemy."

"The enemy you say." the Supreme Commander, along with the rest of the room, seemed intrigued at that. "Are you implying that there's something out there more than the titans?" Erwin nodded.

"After a long interrogation, Annie Leonhart revealed vital information about what lies beyond the walls. Information that we believe is imperative for your knowledge." Zackly turned towards Annie.

"Is that so?" he asked. She nodded after a small hesitance. "What information is that?" Annie waited a few moments a let out a sigh.

"I was born in a nation called Marley, outside of these walls. The world is not overrun by titans like you believe, it's prospering like never before." Instantly the room shook in shock. Murmurs from bewildered witnesses flowing loosely throughout the insides of the court. Annie felt the urge to smirk when she saw the supposedly stoic expressions of the guards be broken by their jaws hanging widely.

"Lies!" the voice of one of the Cult of the Walls members thundered above the others. "She's a demon who's trying to deceive us! She must be put to the sword in this instant!"

"Funny you said 'demon' of all possible insults." Annie answered casually. "That's exactly what the outside world sees you people as. Demons. The lingering evil from an old, supposedly oppressive empire called Eldia. A people so wicked that all their descendance are forever tainted as long as the demons in the island of Paradis, that is all of you, keep drawing breath." There was a fire in her belly, watching the bubble of these naïve self-serving idiots burst, throwing them into the hell that was their real situation. A small smirk implanted on her face as she turned her gaze towards Zackly.

"I am an eldian, like the rest of you. Eldians born in Marley are treated like garbage. The only chance for a decent existence is by joining the Warrior Program. It's Marley who sent me along with the Colossal and Armored titans here, all with the intention to pave the way for a full cleansing of the Earth from the vermin that is the demons of Paradis."

"Supreme Commander, if I may" Erwin intervened, Zackly nodded, giving him the word. "We have reasons to believe her tale, as we have confirmed other parts of it to be true. We also got information from another source that there's additional information which corroborates so in the old Shiganshina District. By recapturing Wall Maria, we would be able to confirm whether or not we're indeed a nation under siege by other humans."

"What other part of her tale is this one you're referring to, Commander Smith?"

"With the permission of Commander Pixis of the Garrison Regiment, I sent a small detachment to investigate the insides of Wall Rose. We found a titan inside of the structure." The words sent another uproar with the crowd, probably one even bigger than Annie's testimony by sheer loudness. A merchant which sat by Nile Dok came forward.

"That's impossible!" he screamed.

"You're admitting of conducting blasphemy of the utmost kind!" the priest rose again. "To harm the integrity of the Walls, and claim such precarious fallacies should be punished immediately! Off with his head!"

"I saw the titan inside the wall with my own two eyes" captain Levi deadpanned with his arms still crossed. "Are you two calling me a liar, you pigs? How about you admit to the reality that's slapping us all in the face and get this over with?" His words added to the uproar. Both stands throwing insults at the other, defending their heads. The guards had taken position in front of them, to keep them from jumping and causing even more chaos. Annie felt a goofy smile on her face, _who would've guessed court being this fun? _she said to herself.

Commander Zackly was yelling for everyone to quiet down. Finally, after some moments, all presents kept their calm, though a tense air was still very much present.

"Commander Smith, you conducted this operation without my consent?" he asked with his gaze firmly placed on the Survey Corps' leader. Erwin nodded, he knew admitting to this would imply a reprimand from Zackly.

"I did. In retrospective I realize that such an operation would need your approval." Zackly hummed, muttering something before shifting towards Dok. Picking up on the hint, the head of the MPs cleared his throat.

"Even if the tale of the prisoner is true, it still does not change the fact that she has been proven to be an enemy of us. We still hold that the only way for her is that of capital execution. She has to pay for the damage she committed."

"We scouts know what she did better than the rest of you combined" Levi said again. "She killed many in our ranks, including half of my squadron, so save me the moralizing and concern-trolling. If there's anyone here has an interest on her being dead is me. Still we most put aside our thirst for revenge if we want to have a chance towards the enemy that is waiting for us."

Just then, a small commotion could be heard outside the room. Then a soldier, a scout judging from the cloak, erupted into the room, followed closely by the two door guards. These quickly put him on the ground.

"What is the meaning of this?" demanded Zackly. The scout got out of the hold and made a quick salute, he was hyperventilating. He must have just gotten off his horse.

"Sir! Supreme Commander! Titans have been spotted behind Wall Rose!"

Any constrain that Zackly managed on the crowd was completely lost just as soon as the words came out of the coming scout. Yells came back and forth across the room, many downright attempted to get out of there, being kept in place by the guards. Many nobles were calling, demanding that the gates of Wall Sina be closed and sealed immediately, an action which was poorly received by the scouts and civilians. From his podium, the supreme commander could spot a reporter in one of the upper balconies rabidly taking notes of the event. The trespass of Rose and the reaction of the nobles would be common knowledge by the end of the week, the month at the latest. _This could very well cause riots throughout _he thought as he shook his head. He heard a voice calling him; looking up he found Erwin.

"Supreme Commander! Give Annie Leonhart to us! We will use her in our victory!" he proclaimed.

Turning to her, Zackly noted that the girl was keeping her head up as the cacophony raged on around her. Almost as if she wasn't there. Could anyone trust her? He doubted it. Turning over to Erwin, he proclaimed his judgment.

* * *

Standing on top of Wall Rose, Eren took a deep breath as he stepped aside from the rest of the group. They had arrived to Castle Utgard about the same time they had done last time, cleaning up what was left of that attack, shortly before dawn. Killing the mindless titans had been more difficult however, knowing that they were residents of Connie's village, converted by Zeke. And though he didn't see the Beast Titan, he could notice the fingerprints of his half-brother all over. He would face him soon enough, and if things went his way, Zeke's life will end at that, saving him a lot of trouble.

Shaking his head, he looked over at the others. The survivors of Utgard remained the same, much to his relief. Historia was clinging onto the stretcher were Ymir was placed, dry tears fixed on her cheeks. Jean and Armin were checking up with Sasha and Connie as the latter two explained Hanji what exactly happened. Mikasa was staying near Historia, occasionally throwing him glances, as if making sure he wouldn't jump off the wall for any reason, a funny thought all things considered. Hannes had just appeared a few moments ago, and was telling the others that there was no breach in the wall.

And then there were Reiner and Berthold. The two stood a bit further from the rest of the main group. Eren put a hand on his lower back, to make sure the dagger he had gotten was there when it'd be needed. He was hoping to be fast enough to neutralize Bert, the wildcard here, and be able to deal with Reiner without that factor. Looking over the edge, Eren took another deep breath. This plan was more rudimentary than his last one, but it should do. Soon, the two warriors started directing themselves towards him.

"Eren, you got a moment?" Reiner asked. Now was the moment it all started. Eren nodded.

"Sure, what's up? Your arm giving you trouble?" he asked innocently.

"No, it's not that" Reiner answered shaking his head. The blue aura around his body shaking as he did. "I wanted to let you know that I am the Armored Titan and Bert is the Colossal one." Even expecting what he was going to say, Eren was slightly dumbfounded with how casually Reiner said such a thing. It dawned on him just how at his limit Reiner must have been, how desperate he was to go back home to drop their act just like that in what could only be considered a hail Mary. Much to the dismay of Berthold, Reiner continued explaining how their mission was the destruction of those inside the walls, and how that may no longer be necessary. "Eren" he said, "if you come with us, we can leave without causing any more damage."

By the corners of his eyes, Eren noticed that Mikasa was standing just a few meters from them, and a bit further Armin and Sasha turned to call us to get moving. He turned his back on Reiner and Berthold.

"There's a lot of people nearby" he said, feeling a claw coming out of his finger, his eyes sharp in contrast to the shaky tone he put on his voice. "How are you going to explain it to them?"

"Don't worry about it" Reiner answered swiftly. "So, you are coming with us, right?" Eren nodded slightly.

"I guess… I'll be able to see your home, and you return to it" _I most definitely know Marley better than you ever will, Braun _he thought. He heard Berthold grab the Armored Titan by the shoulder.

"Reiner, you have any idea what you're doing?" he asked with desperation.

"Yes, Bert" he answered sharply. "And yes, Eren" his tone lowering. "I want to see my home once again." It was then Eren knew Reiner's guard was lowered.

"Most be hard…" he said. "Doing a Marcel impersonation for five years must be tiring." And before any of the two could react, Eren quickly turned on his opponents, slashing Reiner in the eyes and Berthold's throat. Quickly, he took the dagger on his back and stabbed it at the top of Bert's neck, paralyzing him.

After that, Eren moved to the still blinded Reiner and pushed him off the wall. By then the rest of the party had caught on onto what happened. Armin and Mikasa, followed closely by the rest, were dashing towards him.

"Eren!" Sasha exclaimed, "what the fuck was that?!"

Before he could answer a bright yellow light started shining down in the direction he had thrown Reiner. Knowing that was his signal, he moved to the edge.

"Armin, make sure that the knife stays inside of Bert's neck" he ordered. "Mikasa, the Armored is slow and has openings on the joints of his body. I'll try to give as many windows to attack as possible." With that he threw himself into the abyss, shifting in sight of the now awaiting Armored Titan at the bottom of the wall.

As he landed, Eren positioned himself about twenty meters from his enemy, adopting a low guard as he prepared for a fight of grapples against the heavily armored titan of Reiner the warrior. The blond started moving first, throwing a punch towards the head of Genesis. Ducking under it, Eren took a grab of Reiner's waist and threw their bodies to the ground.

Landing on the branch of a nearby tree, Mikasa witnessed the fight that had quickly transpired. Seeing the older brother figure of Reiner quickly descend into that of the beast that destroyed her life in Shiganshina was difficult, but now was not the moment to lament. Drawing her blades, she moved towards a closer position of the match, looking for an opening on the Armored Titan's plates. She saw that Eren took a hold of his opponent's arm with his whole body, followed by pushing himself into the ground, causing tension on the arm.

With the opening clear as day, Mikasa dashed forward, quickly slicing a gaping hole in the armpit of the Armored Titan before moving back, to look for a new opening to attack.

Back on top of the wall, Armin and Sasha watched bewildered what was going on down there. As the rest started coming to see what exactly was going down, Sasha could swear she was suffering whiplash as yet another turn of events happened. As Connie grasped the situation, his eyes went wide.

"W-was Reiner the Armored Titan all along?" he said, voicing the thoughts of all the other members of the 104th. Armin nodded hesitantly, still having trouble gripping the situation. He turned to the smoke coming from behind them to notice that Berthold's wounds had healed, and yet he couldn't move thanks to the knife Eren stabbed on him.

"And he is the Colossal one" he said pointing at the lanky man, who was tearing up as those who thought of him as a brother in arms turned on him.

"Take him into custody" Hanji said, quickly taking command on the situation. "We need to get down from here and help Eren with the Armored bastard. Armin, you and Connie think can move him?" The two soldiers nodded and, with some difficulty, lifted Bert and as fast as they could the group moved towards the elevators.

"Just how much has been under our noses all this time?!" Sasha yelled exasperated.

Eren quickly let go of the arm and stood up, taking a basic guard. As Reiner cumbersomely raised himself from the ground, he was quickly welcomed by a kick on the head, a hit which almost made the Marleyan warrior trip back on the soil. Quickly following on that, Eren took hold of the other arm and extended it. Mikasa must have picked up on that as she swiftly cut the armpit, leaving the arms of the Armored Titan neutralized for some precious moments. Once she was out of the area, he started rotating still holding onto Reiner's useless arm, before throwing him with force against the wall.

The force of the crash sending vibrations up the length of the wall all the way to the top, causing the scouts to trip. Armin and Connie fell to the ground, releasing Bert, who fell in a way that severely took the knife out of the way of the artery it was blocking. With his newfound freedom of movement, Berthold quickly moved his hand to the knife and got it off of him. Panting, he damned Reiner from deciding on doing this so rapidly, and Eren for reacting even more rapidly. Reiner had gotten them into this mess, now it was his job on getting them out of there, and possibly get to Zeke. He started shifting, looking with regret at the ones he had shared a roof with for years.

Seeing the bright light emitting from Berthold, the others quickly got out of the way. A cloud of steam started being emitted, and from it the infamous face of the Colossal Titan appeared. In spite of just appearing as the upper part of its torso arms and head, it still faced a great challenge, Hanji assessed. The god of destruction extended its arm, taking hold of the stretcher where the still unconscious Ymir was. The yells of Historia Reiss were heard over the general commotion, but to no avail as the Colossal placed the stretcher and its broken host in its mouth before balancing off from the wall, falling where the battle was taking place.

The team of Eren's new titan and Mikasa was proving very difficult for Reiner, he thought as he regained motion of his arms. He went for a punch on Eren, but the latter quickly grabbed it with one arm, and extended the other, with claws coming out of it, took hold of Reiner's face. Feeling the claws digging themselves just above to the facial protection his titan provided, Reiner faced himself with the realization that he may very well die here. And then Eren pulled, the hardening covering the Armored's face coming off with it. And before he could even process that, a hard slash came to his now exposed eye, most definitely courtesy of Mikasa.

Stumbling backwards, Reiner raced his mind with possible solutions to the mess he had gotten himself into. Then he noticed the shadow over them, looking up he saw the massive body of the Colossal Titan land before him.

Well aware of the slowness of his titan, Berthold took advantage of the few seconds in which everyone was stunned by his appearance to swipe Eren and his titan off the battle. The hand of the Colossal making contact with Eren, sending him flying into the base of the wall.

Mikasa witnessed it and quickly dashed to attack the Colossal, being stopped by a wave of steam emanating from it, forcing her backwards.

With that, Berthold turned his titan to face Reiner, putting the stretcher Ymir was in and jumped out and into the shoulder of the battered Armored Titan.

"Reiner, we need to get out of here!" he said. "We have the Jaws back, forget Eren, we need to get moving." Reiner listened and momentarily hesitated. Taking Eren with them was the ticket for them to be welcomed in Marley. "Reiner, come on!" Bert screamed desperately. "My steam won't last forever!"

Inside of the Armored, Reiner sighed and nodded. Putting Ymir inside of his mouth, he dropped the plates on his legs and started running off. Hoping that the scouts wouldn't decide to pursuit, as with his state, he may very well fall. _Annie, I wish the best _Reiner thought, _don't get caught._

Back on the base of the wall, Eren could feel the mask of Genesis crack and brake on the edges. That hit by Bert had done a bigger number on him than he expected. But that wasn't a part of his thoughts as he felt consciousness slip from him. He was frustrated, furious. He had been so close to shut Reiner down, and all the trouble that meant in the long run. Now, his gamble lay broken before him. A new attempt would be needed.

"You won't leave Paradis" Eren managed to mutter, before falling unconscious.

Mikasa came towards the titan as she tried to get Eren out of it when she saw him unmoving. She focused on its nape, making a slash, from which he came out swiftly, passed out. As she carried Eren off the titan, she stopped to look at its face, the faint noises of the other scouts in the background. The mask of a mouthless demon broken, a monstrous well of fangs and whip made of blackness for a tongue, slipping through the cracks.

* * *

**And that would be it for this chapter. **

**I got to admit that I had a lot of fun writing Annie's trial, especially how it devolved almost into a riot. It may serve you as a prelude towards the path my story will take the more it starts differing from the original events. A reason for that, if you ask, is that I'm a diehard fan of political dramas, gnagster movies, period pieces and the like, not surprising being a Political Science student, and so you can expect this story to lean more and more on that route as it progresses. I'll try to keep it still as entertaining as possible, as I understand not everyone's into that kind of story.**

**On other news, I have decided to write the prequel I mentioned last chapter, if you're interested you look forward to that in the coming weeks. I'm not too sure on the smaller details, but it will be significantly different in structure and tone from this one.**

**With no more to say, I thank you for reading, and continue reading. All reviews are welcomed, and I'll see you next time.**


	8. VII: Betrayal?

**Disclaimer: I do not own SNK in any way, shape or form**

**A.N at the end of the chapter (these ones are important I feel)**

* * *

Slowly, consciousness came back to him. A small ray of light was falling on his still closed eyes and was starting to bother him. With a groan, Eren rested his weight on his hands as he rose from the soft surface he was in. As vision started coming to, he realized he was in a make-shift hospital, made in the inside of a large, one room building, probably a barn.

Looking around the bed he was in, Eren noted not much of note actually. Just a nightstand next to his bed and another table opposite to it. As he sat in bed, the feeling of a small headache came to him. Massaging his temples, the memories of what had happened came back to him. He had been so close to end it all there. Without Reiner and Berthold to worry about, dealing with Zeke would be a lot simpler, leaving him a hell of a lot more time to prepare Paradis for Marley's eventual retaliation.

"For fuck's sake" he said in a low voice. "Can't things just go as planned for once?" With another groan, he looked for his boots and jacket. Placing his feet inside of the leather knee high boots, he noted just then how cumbersome they were now to him. Having spent so long in Marley, he had become accustomed that his footwear were shoes, or boots who at most reached his calf, and now the single piece of leather that lacked laces except for one at the top had become an insufferable nuisance.

Walking outside, the light of the sun fell with more strength, making him place a hand on top of his mismatched eyes to cover them. He found a large group of mostly scouts, with a few garrison members sprinkled throughout, all working in a different kind of ordeals. But he soon noticed that most were either resupplying their equipment, feeding their horses or alike. They were preparing to move into action. _So we're still going to go after Reiner and Bert, huh? _he mused to himself.

"Eren!" a voice called. Shifting his gaze to the direction of the voice, he saw Mikasa approach him. "Are you alright?" she asked as she was close to him. Eren smiled softly.

"Survived worse" he said reassuringly, emphasizing the point by placing a hand on her arm. "How long was I out?" he asked.

"Just a few hours" she answered as her tone calmed down. "We came here almost as soon as we got you out from your titan. We're in a farm, not too far from district Chrolba." Eren nodded as she explained, pinching his nose at the information. If it had only been a few hours, then there was still a chance to catch those two without too much incident.

"Is Hanji near?" he asked, Mikasa nodded. "Take me to her, please." As she led him, Eren noted that the number of soldiers at the compound couldn't surpass thirty. It was a very small force. He hoped it would be enough to handle the situation that was to come. A small sigh came out of his lips, as a sense of dizziness started to fade into his head. He started to think over just how things had gone so far.

Well, for one, Annie had been captured, alive this time. Having her would prove useful when the time came for recapture Wall Maria, and could even be used as a guide into Marley, making the Survey Corps not so over-reliant on the group of deserters that made in his time the yeagerists, something that in retrospective he found to be a mistake. Also, and even though Eren couldn't keep all four of them alive, Petra and Eld had survived, and better even, they could be back in service in just a few months; and their skill and experience would certainly come in handy. But on the other hand, he simply was not in a position to be safe not even most of the old guard of the Scouting Legion. Mike, Nanaba, and the rest of the former's squad still perished. That was disappointing, as knowing what was ahead implanted in Eren this conviction that he needed any possible soldiers he could keep alive. And also, he hadn't been capable to cut down Reiner and Bert. A step back he hoped he could correct.

"You look troubled" Mikasa said besides him, pulling Eren out of his thoughts. He turned to her, his heart skipping a beat. It had never been a doubt to him that Mikasa has always been a very beautiful girl, but it was just after waking up here that he realized the full extent of that. How smooth her skin was, in spite of years of training; or how caring her eyes were, in spite of how much hardship they had seen. His lips turned upward ever so slightly.

"I'm ok, really" Eren assured her. "I was just processing what happened." Mikasa frowned at that.

"Reiner and Berthold…" she said, leaving the sentence hang in the air. "Just… who would've thought that they…" she sighed exasperated. Eren looked to the ground, it would be really difficult once he came clean. He shook the thought away, he had time to prepare for that. Looking up, he put one hand on her shoulder and the other on the cheek.

"I know" he assured her. "We will deal with them." He paused. He remembered something about Mikasa he had not thought about, joining the military was never her idea. She had joined simply to be with him. She had often mused of living a simple life, whether in Shiganshina or somewhere else. "I don't know when this will end" he said. "But when it does, I'd like to leave this… The military, I mean."

Mikasa's eyes widened like plates, she gasped, though if she was honest she wouldn't know if that was because of Eren's words or the feeling of his palm on her cheek. "W-what are you talking, Eren?" she stammered a bit. "I-I mean, you always wanted to explore the outside world."

_Nice safe, Mikasa_ Eren thought a bit amused at the usually stoic soldier's display. He smiled softly. It was true. Since little he had always felt a drive to explore and discover, outside of the walls being almost something not real, an abstraction more than the fifty-meter-tall obstacles they were. But he had already seen what was outside, Eren had rolled and tumbled around Marley from coast to coast and beyond for years. He had been in damp forested mountains and dry flat deserts. He had been on tense negotiations and shootouts. He had smuggled goods and gone in treasure hunts. He had witnessed cruel executions and had been the executioner himself. Eren was pretty sure he had seen more of Marley, its land and its people, than all the Warriors, Magath included, put together, in fact. And he knew that he would inevitably return there, he needed to if he was to save his loved ones this time. His palm started shaking while still on Mikasa's face, retracting it and clenching it into a fist. He sighed.

"Eren" Mikasa said, wrapping her hand around his fist, concern flooding her gaze. "Are you sure you're okay?" she asked softly. The red scarf tied neatly around her neck. He nodded.

"I'm good" he answered. "Just… It's a lot to take in… So much has happened…" Eren would be lying if he said he wasn't disturbed by this whole ordeal. Everything was supposed to have already ended. Everyone was supposed to be dead. And here they were. He shook the thought away, now wasn't the moment. "But we'll get through this, Mikasa" he reassured, even though he was not sure whom he was comforting. "I swear."

"Eren! Mikasa!" a voice brought them back to where they were. They both turned to find Armin running towards them. As he reached them, he started panting, his hands on his knees.

"What is it, Armin?" Eren asked as he palmed his friend in the shoulder. Armin continued panting for a couple seconds before speaking.

"Commander Erwin and Captain Levi are arriving" he announced. "I was looking for you." At that, the three went to the where the crowd was forming.

Soon enough, a group of scouts in their mounts arrived, with Erwin Smith at its head. Captain Levi wasn't far behind, and all eyes soon fell on him, more precisely, on the person who was also mounting with him. Her hair was untied and made a mess, and she wasn't wearing a military jacket, let alone the cloak the rest of the entourage was wearing. With a frown cemented on his face, Levi came off his horse, and walked towards Eren, while the other already dismounted scouts helped Annie Leonhart of the horse.

_Oh, you're shitting me _were the only words flowing through Eren's mind.

"Brat, with me" barked Levi as he moved away from the crowd, just as Erwin started addressing the rest. Eren turned to Mikasa, making a sign with his hand before following Levi. Once they were a safe distance from the others, Levi turned to face him.

"Here's the situation, Eren" he said, the frown still deep on his features. "The Female Titan is now under jurisdiction of us, and Erwin wants us specifically to make sure no one hurts it and vice versa. And by us, I mean you. I want to deal with that as little as possible, you hear me?" Eren nodded instantly. "Good…" the captain sighed. "Look, if it was up to me, she would be chopped into pieces and thrown in the river. But Erwin will follow your suggestion to use her to recapture Wall Maria and against Marley. I don't like this one bit, but I'm going to trust you on this." As he said that, his hand grabbed Eren's shoulders roughly, his eyes sharp like daggers. "Don't fuck me on this."

"I won't, Levi" The captain nodded at that.

"Also" he added. "Erwin said that I should expand my squadron so we can deal with her with more ease, especially considering it's still going to take some time before either Petra or Eld are back. I was thinking of those I've been employing recently, the ones who are also from your lot. You got a few suggestions?"

Nodding along, Eren smiled inwardly. "Well, there's these other two soldiers from the 104th. Sasha Blouse and Connie Springer. Might seem like slacking jokesters, but they are good and capable soldiers, they broke the top ten of my troop for a reason."

Levi hummed at that. "Making the top ten with Shadis in spite of these eccentricities you say? … I'll think about your suggestion."

"Thank you, Levi" Eren said, bowing his head a bit.

"Tsk, don't get cocky brat. Now, get the female out of there and tell her what's up. I want her to know who has the power in here, iron it on her fucking brain if need be. Go." Without another word, Eren did as said and moved to the now dispersing crowd and moved straight towards Annie, signaling to her to follow him.

He did have a lot to tell her.

* * *

As he walked through the compound of the farm, it could not escape Armin the amount of mixed feelings about the current situation. Erwin had dismounted and almost immediately announced that Annie was now not only a member of the Survey Corps but also that she would be an asset against 'the real enemy' that was behind the fall of Wall Maria, and the construction of the walls to begin with.

The commander had not been very informative as to who this real enemy was, and that was eating away at Armin. Who was behind the titans? And how did Erwin Smith had found out? He sighed. It was a situation both intriguing and concerning. With the commander's vagueness and the weight of all recent discoveries, it smelled like there was something not being told.

When he came out of his thoughts, Armin found himself inside of the barn that was being used as a make-shift hospital. It was currently empty, as all the injured were transported to the city. He was at the back end of the building, where there was a set of stairs going up to the second building where grain, wheat and alike were saved. He turned and found another set of stairs, this one going down, with a closed door at the end. That was strange, as the door was open last time he had been here a few hours ago when checking on a still passed out Eren.

Curiosity getting the better of him, as it often did with Armin, he slowly walked down the stairs. As he neared the bottom, sounds started coming from the other side of the door, what seemed to be a conversation. Leaning his face against the door, he listened closely, to see if he could pick up something.

"That is" a feminine voice said, it was being muffled by the door so Armin couldn't really pick up on whose voice, "quite a tale you got."

"That's a way to put it" a masculine voice answered, again he couldn't identify it.

"And you haven't told no one about this, right?" the female voice asked.

"It's a difficult conversation" the other voice answered. "Look, I know it's a lot to take in—"

"Just know that the only reason I believe you it's because there's no other explanation to you knowing what you know right?" The female voice interrupted the other one. "So, your first plan isn't an option?"

"No" the man's voice answered. "To activate the Rumbling it needs an order from the Founding Titan, which doesn't exist anymore. So any plan that involves it is useless. On the good hand, it means Zeke's Euthanasia won't be a concern either."

"Ok, so… What's your plan then?" the first voice asked. A small instant went by before a response came.

"Well, first of all, we need to retake Maria. After that, it's more of a basic layout so…"

"So you don't have a plan?" The voice sighed. "This is just great…" Slowly, a familiarity appeared in the voices for Armin… But that couldn't possibly be. Right?

"Look, I haven't had much chance to actually come up with something thorough, ok? Fuck off." The second voice answered with venom in its tone.

"Oh, forgive me" the first voice answered sarcastically. "It's not like you made go against everything I know or anything. Please, accept my apology."

"Shut up" Just shut up. We have more than enough time to plan this out when those fuckers are out of the island."

"… Ok. In the meantime, we just have to go along with the scouts." The way the first voice phrased that became eerily familiar. Then it him. _Annie?_ Armin thought.

"Basically." If the first voice was Annie's, then the only real possibility for the identity was… _Eren?!_

"Well, we are in the same side as they. Right?" The question hanged in the air. Panic filled Armin's mind. Just what was going on? A few seconds later, he answered.

"The Survey Corps is more of a convenient framework for us to work from. We share similar goals, and, in time, we can steer them in the right direction. We are in the scouts, but we're not scouts necessarily ourselves."

"So we're now the ones in the right" Annie said before giving a dry laugh. "Convenient. Really convenient."

"That's the thing Annie" Eren's voice was now clear as day. "Everyone things only them are in the right. Everything can be justified with a good enough tale."

Armin couldn't take it anymore. Making sure not to make any noise, he went up the stairs of the barn and left running. Eren and Annie were plotting something, he had heard it from their own mouths. What was happening? Had the world gone mad?!

He stopped. His mind racing with several, and increasingly perverse theories. This was all just so strange. He had to share this with someone and see what could it be.

But who could he possibly share this with? The higher officers, Erwin Hanji and Levi were out of the question. If he did, they could charge Eren with treason, and from what he heard, that wasn't the case. Mikasa maybe? He could, but would she believe Armin. By this point just about everyone knew of his friend's feelings for Eren, and it was more than likely that would make her unreachable for any of this talks. His temples were pulsating; a bad headache was coming.

He had to confront Eren about this. That's what he would do. Eren was his friend. He couldn't really be plotting against them. As soon as Armin had a chance, him and Eren would sit down.

* * *

Slowly, consciousness came back to Ymir. If the hard surface and leafs everywhere were a giveaway, she would say she was on the top of a tree. Her head was spinning. As she moved a hand to massage her temple, steam came against it instead. Turning over, she saw that half of her forearm was gone, looking down one of her legs was also missing from the knee down, steam coming off as the now familiar healing was ongoing.

"Just my fucking luck" Ymir muttered.

"That's on me, I'm sorry" an indistinguishable voice called. Looking up, she found Reiner and Berthold on a nearby branch from another tree. "I was in a hurry and bit your limbs off on accident" Reiner said.

Slight shock ran through her veins at that, though her face did not show. "Reiner, Bert" she said.

"If you're thinking about it, Ymir" Reiner continued, "you cannot escape. We're in the middle of titan territory, if you look down you'll find several mindless titans eager to get a bite out of us. Besides, your body is at its limits, you can't shift while your body heals."

Ymir hummed at that. "I'm assuming you know that cause you're titans yourselves." Reiner remained still, though the lanky Bert nodded behind him. "Honestly I don't know much of this titan ordeal, so" she shrugged. "What are you planning?"

"Don't think I forgot about our episode in the castle, Ymir" Reiner said, his arms still crossed. "You can make yourself an idea."

"You're taking me back to Marley? You want your precious titan power back."

"We will eventually" the blond answered. "In the meantime we're going back to our depo and await instructions from war chief Zeke. That's the hairy titan we saw in Utgard if you didn't figure that out."

"I've always wondered why you people haven't come in the last five years to lay waste to this island" Ymir mused. "Why infiltrate the military?"

"Marley wants the Coordinate before making further moves on Paradis." This time it was Berthold who answered. "And Reiner considered that the best way to obtain it."

"Oh, so this whole charade of playing soldier was your idea only, Reiner, huh?" Ymir teased. "Always wanting to play hero and whatnot."

"I'm not compelled to respond to you, Ymir" Reiner answered sternly.

"I will just ask you this" she answered quickly. "Do you two idiots know that Eren knows about Marley? Not only that, he also knew I was a shifter before even the expedition. What do ya think about that?"

Immediately, shock invaded their faces. Bert, who had already been carrying the look of a worried kid, went ballistic. "What?!" he practically screamed.

"You're lying" a very exasperated Reiner said.

"Why would I?" Ymir shrugged. "A couple of nights before the expedition, I was on patrol, and he appeared, he let me knew."

"Reiner" Berthold moved to be just besides the blond, "if she's telling the truth, that means that he was waiting for us to make a move! What else have we been missing?! Reiner, this could be our end!"

"I know, Bert!" Reiner snapped back. Taking a deep breath, the blond calmed down a bit before turning back on Ymir. "Even if what you're saying is true it doesn't change much of anything, Ymir. And you know that?"

She kept silent at that. It was true, even with the new wildcard that was Eren, and for all his motivational talk, Ymir was still well aware that the walldians were awfully unprepared if Marley dared to invade with its full might, the threat of the Founder being the only one in the way of that scenario. Whatever Eren had in mind was unfathomable for her. In her mind, Paradis did not stand a chance. All of them were, for all intents and purposes, doomed. Eren, his friends, that horse-faced Jean, Connie, Sasha, Krista—

Historia, she screamed to herself, that was her name. Historia. The thought of Historia, her beloved Historia, being executed by Marley, or worse, be turned into a titan and wander in that nightmare for the rest of time. She could not allow that. But what could Ymir, an orphan in all ways, could do? She then looked back at Reiner and Berthold arguing between them, and her path laid ahead.

"Hey" she said, Reiner and Bert stopped arguing and turned to her. "You're right… Paradis has no chance. But, is there a way you can give safe passage to someone in here?"

The two men looked at each other. They were estranged by the question by the one who technically was their prisoner. "Well, there is a precedent" Berthold told Reiner.

"What do you mean?" the blond asked.

"The Tyburs are eldians, and yet they live in luxury and are immune to any attack" he argued.

"That's totally different, Berthold." Reiner countered.

"I know, but there is a precedent. Besides, the warriors and their families gain special rights as 'honorary marleyans'" he argued back. Berthold then turned to Ymir. "That is out of our control" he told her. "But there might be a chance, if you cooperate with us, then maybe Marley can make an exception for you, Ymir."

She shook her head. "I'm not asking for me."

* * *

As he rode on his horse behind the one Annie was, Eren wasn't exactly thrilled, but fairly confident. He wasn't counting on Annie joining them so soon, but that may even work for his advantage. Erwin had called for a party to go after Reiner and Berthold, and to rescue Ymir if possible, as he argued that having yet another titan on their side could only bring them good. Eren agreed, though he was still a bit bitter over the fact that he had to this in the first place.

It helped his concern having Levi in this party also. The veteran had proven himself to be an incredible asset several time, and that would continue to be the case for quite some time. He was also musing of the squad that was forming around the remnants of the first Levi Squad: Himself, Mikasa, Levi, Armin, Annie, Jean, Connie, Sasha, Petra, Eld and with a bit of luck Ymir would make an elite enough force for him to be more than comfortable dealing with any other shifter, even the Warhammer.

He shook the thought away; he would have enough time to concur this team when this trip was over. Looking over, Eren noticed that Armin was eyeing him, he had been doing that for some time, and it was starting to get worrisome. He would have to talk to him also. He sighed slightly, there just was so much left to be done before he could even start preparing for the real threat.

He rode and positioned himself so he would be just besides Annie. The two shared a look and gave a subtle nod to each other.

Could he really trust Annie? Eren supposed he could trust that she will be true to her goals. She has been explicit in that she is only in this to get back to her father. His mind returned to the conversation the two had just a few hours ago, when she arrived with Erwin and the others.

The two walked into the barn, looking for a place isolated enough so the two could speak with general privacy. After some searching, they found a basement at the end of the barn, they entered to find it empty. They quickly locked the door and Eren got to explain what exactly was going on, him being from another time, the Tezcatlipoca, and so on. After that they had a little spat over what was he currently planning and their place in the Survey Corps.

"I got a question" Annie had asked shortly after. "If you are supposed to consume the nine, what exactly are you going to do with me?"

"In my time on Marley I saw many things. Some good, some bad, most of the time it was just boredom to be honest, and few peaks of gruesomeness. Anyway, among those things, there was this chemist who had allegedly found a way to retrieve shifter powers from the host without killing them. We had been hired to guard him as he went to the capital to announce it to the military. The trip ended up failing and the guy died, but I managed to keep his notes and read it frequently. I still have a solid idea of what was the process, and I was thinking that with help from Hanji we could recreate the serum." As the implications dawned on Annie, her eyes widened.

"So you're going to get the Female Titan out of me—"

"And then consume it myself" he finished. Annie hummed as she processed the idea.

"I had resigned myself to live just six years more" she thought out loud. "But wouldn't make me lose my usefulness to you."

"Well for me it wouldn't matter" Eren shrugged. "But for the Survey Corps? You are still a talented soldier with knowledge about Marley and its military, so you can lean on that. And also, it's going to be a while before that becomes an option, so by then you should've gained their trust." He had put his palm on her shoulder and started walking towards the door. As he approached it, Annie said something that stuck with him since.

"Do you have the curse of Ymir as well?" she had asked.

He didn't know what to answer then, and even now his mind was filled with speculations. In theory, there should not be a reason for the curse of Ymir, the thirteen-year lifespan of a shifter, in him, as his power did not come from Ymir. Also, the Tezcatlipoca had not mentioned such limitations. Matter of fact, it did not give Eren any restrictions over how to complete he mission it gave him, and Eren was relying on that to make the serum work. But he felt the possibility could not be ruled out either, as he supposed such fine letters on contracts would be common in such deals. So now, the uncertainty over whether or not he was still working on a time limit was slowly poking at his mind, letting the door open for anxiety to barge in. As if it needed help to begin with.

A shout pulled him out of his thoughts as he saw the party approached the large forest. Looking back, he saw a small group of mindless titans following the party. He turned his gaze back ahead and he saw something moving quickly through the trees.

"Prepare to attack!" shouted Erwin in front of them. As they were just on the edge of the forest, the thing moving in the trees jumped down and landed, crushing two scouts on their horses under its feet.

Shock gave way to fury in Eren as the form of Ymir's Jaw Titan roared at the party, deadly intent written on its veins.

* * *

**So this would be it for this chapter, leaving it in a bit of a cliff-hanger, if you don't mind.**

**Took me a bit longer to complete this than I had anticipated, and I apologize for that. The whole ordeal that is going on with the coronavirus had the political scientist in me taking a lot of attention into it and what could happen out of this (PLEASE, ALL OF YOU TAKE CARE IN THESE TIMES AND LISTEN TO THE MEASURES SUGGESTED BY THE EXPERTS!). Add to that a bit of writer's block, there was also me working on this story's prequel, Starless, and other more personal affairs have been going on and it's been putting a dent on my work scehdule. With some luck, it won't take as long for the next update to show itself.**

**I also want to thank Syrup-Waffle for giving me the idea of a serum capable of subtracting the shifter power, I hadn't thought of it before reading it and if by any chance you end up reading this I want to congratulate you on making such a good story in "Titan Through Time", I wish you the best luck, and that you don't mind me borrowing this asset for my purposes.**

**I've also come to a bit of a dilemma regarding where this story is headed. I won't give anything away, but I will say that the story will end in a place I myself don't agree with, but as I see it that ending is the one that make sense when taking into perspective the characthers' motivations, worldview and available resources. I'm still going to end this story, regardless of this dilemma, but I would like having your opinions on the matter. For those who do, I thank you in advance for your opinion.**

**And as always, all reviews are welcomed. I hope you keep enjoying this little project of mine, and I will see you all on the next update!**


	9. VIII: Rip and Tear

**Disclaimer: I do not own SNK in any way, shape or form**

**A.N at the end of the chapter**

* * *

At the edge of a forest of massive trees, lost somewhere inside a hermit kingdom on a godforsaken island, a party of over thirty valiant soldiers stood on their mounts. The sky was turning into an orange coloring, giving the entire a field a surreal feel to the scene it was a witness of. The soldiers had their swords swinging in the air as the nearby trees were dampened by blood on the leaves. In the middle of the scene there was a being three meters in height roaring at the crowd. The Jaw Titan moved to where a small blond girl was.

Historia made no move against it, though. Inside of such a beast lied Ymir, the only person to this point that actually cared about her as to what her real self was. Her blades remained hidden on her ODM gear as Ymir's hand made for her. She was confused. She was even a bit scared about the giant hand reaching towards her. But still she made no attempt to defend herself. She knew that inside that titan there was Ymir, probably the only person in this world who has seen the real her and actually cared, and she knew Ymir wouldn't hurt her. Just last night she literally risked it all to save her and the others in Utgard. She gasped as the hand closed around her and lifted her off the horse.

She saw from the corner of her eyes as a scout dashed towards Ymir, swathing him away like a fly, him crashing on a tree. Before she could process what was happening, the other scouts were making for them and Ymir rapidly jumped back into the trees. Shouting and the stomping of several hooves sounded behind them. _Ymir, what is happening? _Historia wanted to ask as she put into the titan's mouth, light fading as its jaw closed, _where are you taking me?_

* * *

With the chase on, the scouts made their way across their forest, making sure that the Jaw Titan was firmly on their sights. As they rode, more and more mindless titans became aware of their presence and followed them, the slower riders soon fell to their chasers. Everyone was on their edge, that much was evident.

Eren was fuming. The fact that Ymir had swooped in, killed some of them, took Ymir and ran off could only mean that, once more, she had done a deal with Reiner and Berthold, she had once again surrendered to Marley. He would be disappointed in his failure to turn her over if not for the fact that he was now only focused on killing her. Eren would not, under any circumstance, allow Marley to gain the Jaw back.

He kept riding behind Levi, alongside Annie, through the forest. He could see from the corner of his eye Armin, Mikasa and the others a few meters away. All their sights were on the path ahead, and the Jaw in the trees swinging rapidly, maneuvering through them without any signal of stopping. The faint noises of agonizing screams behind him as the more scouts were cut down by the mindless titans they were attracting.

Finally, the end of the forest appeared at before them, with the figure of the Armored Titan not too far off from it. The Jaw jumped when reaching the tree line and jumped into Reiner's back, who quickly started running towards the south, towards Shiganshina.

As the scouts in turn made their way out of the forest, Erwin shout out the commands.

"Listen up!" he proclaimed. "Levi, take your squadron and deal with the main targets! Everyone else, we will cover them from the other titans! Get to it! Give your hearts!" Without another word, each soldier got to their position, jumping off their horses and choosing a titan to take down.

The Levi Squad kept going forward across the open field over to the two shifters. Two human figures stood with them, one large one on the shoulder of the Armored, and a smaller one on top of the head of the Jaw. A plan of attack was already on Eren's mind. He turned to Annie.

"I'm faster than you" he said. "I'll go after the Jaw. You keep Reiner occupied." Before she could retort, Eren was already moving towards Levi to let him know of the plan, leaving Annie behind and out of hearing range.

"You think we can trust her, brat" argued Levi when informed.

"It's too late to leave her out anyway" he retorted. "Besides, my titan's faster than hers." Levi gritted his teeth before relenting.

"The rest of you brats with me!" ordered the veteran scout. He jumped from his horse and started his ODM gear. With the titans being taken care of, that left the recovery of the Reiss girl to him. "Listen up, we got to take the girl out of harm's way!" he said as the others closed in on him. "After that, we'll provide support when needed!"

They moved through the air, approaching directly as Eren and Annie remained in the ground, trying to catch Reiner and Ymir when their attention was elsewhere. From the distance, it was difficult for Annie to make out who was who. All she could see was one of the scouts try and grab Krista –or whatever her name was-, before dodging out of the way of a swing by the Jaw. Swing that broke down halfway, as another scout cut said limb, falling uselessly to the ground. A shriek of pain rumbled out of the Jaw Titan. With that, they quickly took hold of the girl and moved out.

Meanwhile, the other scouts were covering those two, by going after Berthold, who was quickly hidden by one of Reiner's hand.

"Are you ready, Annie?" Eren asked. It took her a second to answer. She knew that once she turned into the Female and attacked, any chance of returning to Marley with the Warriors would be thrown out the window. She would then be completely tied to Paradis in the eyes of Marley. Was she really going to do this? Perhaps if she turned and attacked the scouts… She pushed the thoughts away. She could not do that to Eren, not after going all the way to make sure she wouldn't get executed. Annie sighed internally, she was going with this after all. She looked up and nodded.

The two shifted and moved directly to them. Once they were at a close distance, they jumped of their horses, shifting in mid-air.

A shining light came from Reiner's left. Inside his titan, he turned its head to see the figures of Eren's mysterious new titan and, most shockingly, the Female Titan. And before he could fully process what was in front of him, the hardened fist of Annie's titan made contact with his jaw, breaking the armor of his face and sending him tumbling.

Suddenly, Berthold Hoover was shot out from inside the safety of the Armored Titan's cover. Spinning through the air, it was at first difficult for him to make out what was truly going on. He saw himself plummeting to the ground, and instinctively ignited his ODM gear, shooting it blindly, praying to the heavens that it connected before he crashed into the ground. As hope was leaving his body, the wires of the gear vibrated as the hooks connected; he immediately moved himself towards the direction of a nearby tree that, by nothing short of a miracle, he had hooked himself to. It was just then that he could see what was going on. He wasn't too surprised to see Eren's titan, but instead of going directly after Reiner, he was taking a hold of Ymir. What made his eyes go wide as plates, however, was the form of Annie's titan grab the Armored into her hold and throw him into the air. Air escaped his lungs and his heart sank when the realization. _A-Annie?! _he said to himself _what are you doing?!_

* * *

Ymir's day could be doing better. On one moment, she successfully taken Historia from the party of scouts, and had made it back to Reiner and Bert. And then the others of the 104th were on them. Mikasa had cut one of her arms when Captain Levi had tried to get Historia back. And then something smashed against them. And now she was being held by her leg by a beast, squeezing tightly. The sound of bone snapping reaching her ears. From her position it was hard to see all of it in detail, but the look of a masked face looking down on her was enough to terrify anyone. Its sharp angles, long chin, empty eyes and missing mouth, from which the gnarling sounds of a wild animal emerged. Her instincts were panicking. She had to get out of there.

Ymir tried to desperately to turn herself to be able to bite the hand that was holding it. After some struggling, she managed to bite a few fingers of, and jumped out.

Inside Genesis, Eren was getting even more angry than he already was. He was not really seeing the Jaw Titan desperately limping through severed arm and broken leg, nor was he seeing Ymir, the woman whose assistance could have been so valuable, no. He was seeing all of the failed savings and half-assed successes. He was staring at all the deaths he could stop even with benefit of foresight. He was glaring at the chance of this opportunity being for naught. Eren was tired of that. This time, things will turn out fine, no matter what!

Catching up to Ymir was not too difficult with how injured the Jaw was. He extended Genesis' claws and pierced them through the torso and lifted Ymir in the air. Damned be Ymir, damn her!

* * *

Reiner was confused at first at seeing the sight of Annie in front of him. It took him a few seconds until he could process what was going on, and what it meant. A feeling of betrayal ran through his spine inside the Armored's nape. The feeling of half his face being exposed after the Female's punch was chilling. He got up to his feet and assumed a fighting stance.

Annie assumed her standard fighting stance. She had always been Reiner's superior in hand to hand fighting, and the advantages that the Female had over Reiner's titan only amplified the gap. He knew he could not possibly stand to her, especially in the current situation. All Reiner could do is stand his ground as long as possible, and pray for a miracle.

Taking a long breath, he threw himself to her.

* * *

_Annie, why?! Why are you doing this?_ Implored Berthold on his insides watching the Female Titan wrestle with the Armored. Not only did that meant that Annie had been captured, but that the Survey Corps had coerced her into working for them. It did not make sense.

The warrior could not continue to stare as Armin and Jean were approaching him, blades on their hands. Instinctively, he planted his feet and prepared to fight. A part of him lamented on not bringing a rifle all those years back, he could easily shoot both down before they reached him. No matter. The two scouts landed on the tree branch opposite to him.

"Time's up, Bert!" exclaimed Jean. "Lay down and we'll be gentle."

Berthold did not respond, keeping his blades in a defensive position and watching the corners of his eyes for any maneuver down his flanks.

"We're not letting you away" Armin said after picking up him eyeing his sides. "You have a lot to answer for."

"What did you do to Annie?!" he exclaimed suddenly, against his will. Armin and Jean hesitated slightly against the display. "You turned her against us!"

"You were the traitors first!" Jean retorted angrily. "We trusted the two of your disgusting asses, all of us did! You cannot play the victim here, Bert!" he said pointing his blade towards him.

When it seemed the two were about to throw against the other, a high-pitched shriek rumbled through their bones. Berthold looked up from them and witnessed horror.

* * *

With the Jaw firmly impaled, Eren was ready to end this, no matter what it took. He was not thinking on the repercussions of this. He simply saw Ymir, she who could throw a wrench in all his efforts.

He felt a snapping sensation on the head of Genesis and quickly realized its mask opened up, ready to swallow the Jaw Titan.

Inside her titan, Ymir was panicking. She was defenseless against the fate that was unleashing itself before her. The mask that covered the face of Eren's titan snapped at the level of the mouth. And from it a dark well with fangs for walls opened up before her. A long, slender, black serpent tongue moved inside said well, like a dog having food held up just out of range. She could hear someone screaming her name in the distance, most likely Historia, regret was filling up in her as she realized she never said goodbye to her, and now never will. As her titan was being introduced into the mouth, she took a small look at all the sharp, crooked fangs yearning to tear her to pieces and realized this won't be pretty.

Then the jaws closed on her.

The sound of meat of bones being crushed inside of Genesis' mouth filled Eren's eardrums. The taste of blood filled him, the blood of both the Jaw Titan and Ymir herself. The sensation of the essence of the Jaw falling down the throat came. It was something that cannot be explained, something that is rather intuited, like most things about the titans. Genesis started tilting its head like an animal, blood and guts dripping out of the broken mask. Then it screamed. A scream that was both low and high. A guttural screech that he had never heard before. His vision turned white.

And before he knew, Eren was in the Paths once more.

If he was honest, he was more irritated rather than anything else. A familiar form of nerves slithered over to Eren, erecting into the air as it got close.

"_Thou hath not taken long to start reaping results, Hunter" _the eerie voice of the Tezcatlipoca faded into his mind. _"It seems to be most satisfying that thy capabilities to bring back my children hadn't atrophied in the jump to this new plane."_

"I was in the middle of a battle" Eren answered back. "It'd be a shame if I were killed while you take me here." The beam that stood at its head remained still, boring into his eyes. Then a burning sensation came into his left eye. Eren staggered to his knees.

"_Do not misidentify the satisfaction over thy proficiency, Hunter" _Eren managed to hear above his own moans of pain_. "It would just be too easy to end thy soul should thee be considered inconvenient."_

The pain subsided instantly. _"Nevertheless, it is expected that our paths shan't meet until thou hast brought the last of my children back to its due place."_ He looked up to see the Tezcatlipoca keeping still, the beam fluctuating amongst several indescribable colors that did not belong in reality. Around it circulated two small balls of light. Looking over his hand, he saw a third one. Figuring out what to do, Eren rose hesitantly to his feet and opened his palm; the small beam of light traveled and joined the two orbiting around the Tezcatlipoca. There was a strange peace in the aura. But as he was processing it, something pulled Eren backwards.

* * *

Eren's titan had roared had sent a shiver down Mikasa's spine. Turning to look at it, she could see its bloody mouth wide open as that monstrous shriek cut through the air, stopping any other noise dead in its tracks. A shiver that was felt by everyone else, judging by her comrades' reaction. Even the normal titans had started to behave even more aggressively. It was starting to get hard for her to get a clear picture of whatever was going on. She resigned herself to simply end the titan who was in her path.

In spite of her efforts, the horde of titans did not stop. There were dozens of them and were acting extremely aggressively. At first every scout in the party acted on their own accord. Now all were in either pairs or trios simply because it was getting too taxing and dangerous for each individual soldier. Mikasa had stuck close to Levi, and even though the two were making quick work of as many titans as they could, it was starting to take its toll. Mikasa's muscles were growing stiff and her reactions were getting slower, Levi was only faring slightly better himself.

"This is getting out of hand" the veteran said as he and Mikasa finished off a couple of titans. "We need to retreat we get completely overwhelmed." She nodded at that. A large thud came from behind them.

They turned to see Eren's titan fall to its knees and hunch over motionless. The arms hanging and mouth open, blood dripping out of it. The two looked at it with shocked expressions on their faces.

"What in the shit is that brat doing?!" snarled Levi. Before Mikasa could process it herself, a flare shit into the air calling for a retreat. "Mikasa, go get Eren out of there. I'll go to Erwin to help organize the retreat. Go!" Mikasa nodded before blasting in Eren's direction, she did not need to be ordered that.

She landed by the Rogue Titan's shoulder and started calling to Eren, no answer. She tried again, and again, all to no avail. Growing desperate by Eren's lack of answer, the swarm of titans, the quickly retreating scouts, and the still going on duel between the Female and Armored titans taking place too close for her comfort, Mikasa jumped to the nape. She cut through it and found Eren's motionless body. She feared for the worst.

"Eren!" she cried as she reached for him. Mikasa pulled his body out the nape, she would drag him back to base if need be. Just as she had taken all of his body out, she noticed a glow came from Eren. Moving him to see, Mikasa noticed that Eren's eye, his injured eye had a blueish glow to it. Then a chilling sensation ran through her muscles as her mind was swarmed with images. Taken aback her hold on Eren and her balance were lost and the two bodies fell to the ground.

A large pain arrived in her ribcage as she landed, though Mikasa barely felt it. The attack on her mind taking all her focus. Images of places she's never been in; people she'd never met; exchanges she never participated in. Perspectives that were not hers. Two gravestones in a hill. A dusty room in a rainy day with melancholic music. A large vehicle plummeting to an immense ditch in a place with no life. A chase through a bustling city. A jail cell deep underground. A betrayal and a failure. Dozens of conversations happening at once, from which a few phrases rose above the rest.

_I am a ghost. My home is gone, never to return. What else is there to me?_

_I can only move forward. Until my enemies are destroyed._

_Because we were born into this world._

_My sins? The only I acknowledge is not being honest to those that mattered._

_What am I… to you?_

_Fight! Fight! Fight!_

_It's all in the past now._

_This scarf is not mine; I'm just taking care of it while I can._

_If we go there and kill our enemies… will we be free?_

_I was a hero and a villain. Now, I'm nothing._

_It was never supposed to end like that._

_Mikasa, I've always hated you._

Overwhelmed with so much going on, Mikasa started feeling sick. Her legs were shaking and her breakfast soon landed on the ground ungraciously.

Eren's vision came blurry at first. He was in a daze. Just one second ago he was in the Paths as the Jaw was delivered back, and then he was pulled and now he was in the ground with a cacophony around. As his vision returned he turned and saw Mikasa a few meters away, vomiting and holding her head. He rose and went in her direction. When she noticed Eren approaching, her eyes went wide and pulled out one of her blades and held it against him.

"Stay away from me!" she cried. "Stay away!" Eren staggered backwards at that, surprise flowed through him.

"Mikasa…"

"Stay away! You deceiver! You knew everything all along! You knew!" There were now tears in her eyes, her words stabbing him.

Eren fell to the ground at that. 'How' was the only word that jumped around in his head. All of a sudden, nothing really mattered to him. For a moment, the ache in his heart was all that he could hear. _So this is what it felt like? _

A shadow brought him back to reality. Reluctantly, he turned to see a familiar face stare down at him. Eren had completely forgotten about her, and that she had been here too.

"Dina…" he mumbled. As the Smiling Titan's hand reach for him, Eren remained still. His forces were spent and his will wavered. If it hadn't been for something killing Dina, Eren would have certainly died there.

* * *

The smoke signal shot into the air, Annie barely saw it if she was honest. Her duel with Reiner taking all of her attention. Her conflicted feelings on the matter were contained, but just barely at times.

The scouts were retreating back into a close group to get out of there. Eren's titan had fallen to its knees and was motionless. And the Armored was still up, battered and many of the pieces in his armor missing, but still standing. Berthold suddenly appeared and landed on Reiner's shoulders. She kept her guard up, but hesitations still remained.

"Annie, come on!" he called to her. "We need to get out. I don't know what they did to you, but it's not too late!" Annie was shaken by Berthold's words. She turned to see the scene. Titans were overrunning the few remaining scouts that have not yet retreated. It was beyond clear that the mission had failed, and that begged the question: what was she going to do? In truth, not even Annie herself knew.

She remembered her father's words, how he will always be with her, even if the whole world stood against her. And she remembered Marley. All the mistrust imposed on her. All the dirty looks thrown her way. How she was taught never to be close from a guard. Did she really want to go back to that? The answer came quickly, even to her.

She shook her head and pointed her finger to Reiner, moving him to get out of there, and without an answer she turned around and went to pick whatever scout remained alive, Berthold's cries drowned by the gnarls of the mindless titans as she approached the carnage.

She approached Eren's titan first and saw him and Mikasa laying just besides it, with a mindless titan reaching for Eren. Quickly, Annie hardened her leg and kicked it so hard she sliced through it. Without much else, she picked the two up and moved to rescue whatever scout she could.

By the time she made it back to the main group, she was carrying about ten to a dozen more of them. She felt relieved she could save all those she encountered, like a weight have been lifted up her shoulders. For the first time, Annie genuinely felt good about coming to Paradis.

* * *

**Ok, so this chapter took me much longer than I anticipated. I will be the first to admit that I'm not the best at writing action, and this chapter is heavy on it, so it took me a while to push the chapter forward. I promise it won't take this long for the next update, as I'll be working on it as soon as I upload this one.**

**So now Mikasa is informed over Eren's little secret. My reasoning as to how it happens is that by pulling him out of Genesis whilst he was in the Paths it caused his memories to leak over to her. I myself don't know if that answer is satisfying but I'm sticking by it, as I promise I'm going somewhere with this plot-thread.**

**On another note, I just found out that there was a typo on a previous chapter name. Yeah, let's just forget that happened, please. Any typo or grammatical error I find in here is an absolute cringe for me and I promise I will revise them at some point in the future.**

**In any case I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Thank you so much for your support! And as always, all reviews are more than welcomed!**


	10. XI: Readjustments

**Disclaimer: I do not own SNK in any way, shape or form.**

**A.N at the end of the chapter.**

* * *

Sitting in his office, Commander Erwin had Levi, Hanji and what remained of his trusted officers report over the effects of Annie Leonhart's trial. From the one reporter who attended the affair, a now infamous article was written about what went down: the revelations by Annie, the news of the breakthrough of Wall Rose, the resulting reaction of the nobles, and the verdict of the trial. Said article was taken down soon after publishing and the author had been imprisoned, but it was just too late for the MPs. The article had been copied and clandestinely distributed. In a manner of days, it was the only talk in the cities, and tension started building up.

It was even amusing for Erwin, the system that had been so carefully put in place so many years ago was starting to tumble just like that. Riots had already been reported in many cities throughout Walls Rose and Sina, and throughout every city a strict curfew had been established. So far, the Military Police has just been capable of keeping things under control, but the writing was on the wall. The powder kegs were ready to explode, and many were eager to lit them. It was in times of turmoil, after all, that power became available.

"My team says that some nobles are starting to provide funding and weapons to those taking part in the riots" Hanji explained as she put down the report. "It seems evident that they're planning to scale the ladder as chaos unravels."

"But shouldn't the tension subsides when Wall Rose gets declared safe again" another officer asked. Levi clicked his tongue.

"This is far more than just Wall Rose" he countered. "For the common people, it's like the rug had been pulled from their feet. This won't go away simply because Rose is livable again, and especially not if the rioters are encouraged and supplied for their actions."

"There's no stopping this anymore" agreed Erwin. "Which leads us to this question. What should we do to get what we want here?"

Hanji hummed at that. "Well, trust in the government and its branches are at an all-time low. But we have never been seen as fully a part of the government, rather more as a rogue branch of the military. The Survey Corps is in a strange situation simply put."

"The anger towards the government should not be translated to anger towards us you're saying, squad leader Hanji?" asked another officer.

"The Survey Corps' mission has always been the retaking of the territory lost to the titans" said Erwin. "If anything, I would argue that we're in a position to make gains out of this."

"But there is no actual way the government will be overthrown" countered the first officer. "And even if it is overthrown, how could we make sure that the kingdom doesn't fall into a massive free-for-all?"

"We have knowledge that is keen to sway the public into our favor" Erwin said calmly as he remained in his chair. The second officer got visibly intrigued.

"What could be so much more shocking than the tale of us being the last of humanity being a lie?" he asked.

"The king we all swore allegiance to is merely a puppet" at the shocked expressions, Erwin turned to Hanji, telling her to expose her findings.

"Well, you'll see" she started, "after an anonymous tip, I made a little snooping around and found out that the main power behind the throne is the Reiss family. They put the current dynasty on the throne, but keep a tight hold on them, the higher charges of the Military Police, and the Cult of the Walls."

"More importantly, we found out recently that got a hold of the last Reiss heir" Levi added. "Apparently, she went into hiding by enrolling into the military with a different identity and casually joined us."

"That is all well and good" the first officer asked, "but without a concrete plan, this tools are of no use." Erwin nodded.

"Correct. That is we need to put the Reiss in the throne and gain the support of the protesters so that her claim will be legitimate through them. Here's what we are going to do. The Survey Corps will take part in the protests and direct them towards the nobility and the higher ups in the Church of the Walls. In the meantime, Levi and his squad will go track down Rod Reiss and cut him down."

"So we're going against the rest of the military with just a mob of peasants as our allies?" interrogated the second officer.

"No" Erwin quickly shook his head. "The Garrison will not take part in this. I already exchanged words with Pixis, and though he did not agree to side with us, he will not stand against us. And that may be just enough." The rest in the room nodded at that, as the picture started becoming clear. "If the reports are to be trusted, we still have a few days, even a week or two, to set things to our favor. Get the troops organized, I'll keep you informed of what to do. You're dismissed."

The two officers saluted the commander before departing, Erwin knew they were loyal to him, they will do as he says. _Loyalty is such an important factor when conspiring_ he mused. He turned to Levi. "Is your squad taking care of the Reiss girl?" The captain nodded.

"I let Eren know of our basic intentions before coming here, we'll get moving when you give the order" informed Levi as he moved from the wall he was leaning on. "From here, we'll move to Karanese to retrieve Petra and Eld, and set up the sparks you told me."

"Before anything else, we need to be aware of this" mentioned Hanji as she handed Erwin a list of names. "This is a list of names of MPs who suddenly fell off the record."

"What of it?" asked Levi. "MPs go missing in the Underground all the time."

"When that happens a report is filed in and is added to the record" argued Hanji. "This did not happen with these, they simply stopped being mentioned. What called my attention is that these are very skilled soldiers, all top of their class when graduating and with accolades. I think they were pulled to a special unit that performs activities of the record."

"How did you get this list, Hanji?" asked Erwin.

The squad leader smiled smugly "I have my ways." The commander simply hummed at that, that conversation could wait.

"Can you find out if these people still have relatives alive?" Hanji smiled slyly.

"I sensed you might've wanted to know that. I already got Moblit and Nifa working on it, give us a bit more time and I'll even tell you where their diary keys are hidden" she boasted.

"Good, we'll need that info to deal with them."

"You got a plan already Erwin?" inquired Levi.

He nodded. "Such an allegedly skilled squadron will be a struggle for us, especially after our losses to our veteran corps" explained Erwin. "And no doubt they would've received additional training for their operations. We have to pull them into situations where we have the advantage. Separate them and bait them into scenarios where their skill will not matter."

"Divide and conquer" muttered Hanji.

"What about the marleyan spies?" questioned Levi. Erwin and Hanji both understood the captain's worry. Just two days ago the Armored and Colossal titans had effectively escaped out of their reach. That combined with the sightings of a new shifter, the Beast titan, identified by Leonhart, had kept the Survey Corps bitter over their failure to end them there.

"We can only trust that they will not make a move while this is going on" answered Erwin. "Let us not get cocky here, we're in a very delicate situation right now" he said as he got up from his chair. "We need to overthrow the government now because a moment like this will not come again. If the escaped shifters make a move while we're tied up in this operation, we'll be fucked. If the powers behind the throne act faster than we anticipate, we'll be fucked. If our plans are leaked and become public, we'll be fucked. If the popular rage gets stolen by some other party, we'll be fucked."

"And still we have to do this…" muttered Levi.

"And still have to do this" Erwin agreed, "if we are to stand a chance against Marley."

If he was honest with himself, even Erwin was hesitant over this. The sacrifice of soldiers that had sworn to fight against the titans was one thing, but this… He shook the thought away. Now was not the time to question himself. So much has been sacrificed in these hundred years of isolation and deceit to turn back just because the path out of it includes some nasty affairs. These were desperate times, and so they call for desperate measures. They were left no other choice. For their survival, for their freedom, they had to act.

* * *

The last couple of days were miserable for Eren in a way it hadn't truly been since, well, before he arrived here. The escape of Reiner and Bert, his apparent fallout with Mikasa, and the general frustration of not being capable of changing much of anything so far was eating at him. With his luck, he was genuinely surprised Annie had not simply run away with the others as well.

He sighed as he finished sweeping the cabin the squad was currently hiding in, just as they had done last time around. Jean, Sasha and Armin had left to the nearby village to buy food, Annie and Connie were off chopping wood, and Historia, when she wasn't crying her eyes out, was looking after the bed-ridden Mikasa. So that left him to clean this mess alone. He was dying for a cigarette, but Levi detested the smell, so he could only smoke in the outdoors, meaning not at the moment.

Eren could not shake the feeling that this whole affair was set up as a joke. Here he was, with the chance to actually make a positive difference, and yet all his efforts resulted in things going just marginally better than last time, if that. He supposed at least no one that actually mattered had died yet, so at least he had going for him, but for how long though? That he could not answer.

The sound of the door opening brought him back to the present, he saw Connie and Annie arrived with an axe and some firewood respectively.

"Did you guys dusted off before entering?" asked Eren apathetically.

"We didn't" Annie deadpanned as she continued onwards.

"Why? Were we supposed to?" asked Connie as he put the axe away. Eren sighed before taking a seat.

"Forget it" he replied. Connie seemed like he wanted to ask him something, but must have decided against it as he shrugged and carried on. As he took off the cloth from his forehead, Eren resigned himself for the day, the cabin would not burn for a half-assed sweeping.

It was funny, in a way. He had once been almost as tyrannical in his cleaning standards as Levi himself. But his years in prison, and rolling and tumbling through Marley as an outlaw had left his cleaning habits broken and battered long ago. What was the point in cleaning a run-down motel room in the middle of nowhere, after all, if they would leave just days later? What was the point in cleaning the vehicle they were traveling if it would be all dusty and filled with junk in a matter of hours? There was none. He shook his head. Those memories he made there… They didn't feel real. It had been both miserable and beautiful at once. Eren was too broken back there to realize he had effectively made friendships again. All those days and nights filled with almost empty plates for dinner, loud discussions and clouds of smoke emerging from four throats. He had never thought about them fondly until they passed. Eren supposed that was his biggest failing. He was too concentrated on either the past or the future to fully realize what was in front of him. Even now he was falling for that habit.

The others did not take long to arrive and start preparing dinner. Eren and Annie spent it training their hand to hand in the backyard, sparring for the better part of the afternoon. And though Annie was still his superior in close-quarters combat, it was definitely a close struggle now. It was fun to just be there, in the moment, when he could shut off for some minutes and just focus on his opponent in front of him. Before they knew it, the sun was setting and they were calling for dinner.

Dinner had been a very silent and uncomfortable event. Despite of the eight people in the room, the only sounds were those of knives and forks bumping into each other as they went into their respective plate. Eren and Annie were sitting in a table adjacent to the main one were the others were. At some points, he could feel eyes on them, but who though he could not tell. Mikasa had basically given him the cold shoulder ever since, somehow, she got his memories. Historia was obviously heartbroken over Ymir's death, and most likely furious with him over killing her. Armin had been throwing him weird looks since before the last mission began, he certainly had something he wanted to speak with Eren but had not done so yet, and he could not be bothered to go out for it. And everyone in general did not know what to think of Annie being placed into their squad. It was not surprising, then, that people would leave immediately after leaving. Connie and Sasha left, followed shortly by Jean. A little later, Armin helped Mikasa up the stairs.

And that left Eren, Historia and Annie to clean the dishes. Annie pick up the plates and handed them to Eren as Historia swept the floor for any scrubs that might have fallen off. The uncomfortable, tense atmosphere from the dinner not dissipating one bit.

As Annie gave him the last plates, she remained close by, a conflicted look plastered across her face. "Something on your mind?" Eren muttered just loud enough for her to hear. She looked to the side.

"Everyone's wondering what happens from here" she retorted. "… Myself included."

"People don't like uncertainty" Eren answered without looking up.

"Are you not allowed to talk about it?" Annie doubled down.

"When has that stopped me?" he retorted before sighing. "From here we're gonna overthrow the king, we cannot operate further without getting him and his posse out of the way."

"And put her on the throne" she said, referring to the girl at the other side of the room. "That's… good and such. How though?" Eren looked up.

"The plan is to harness the unrest going on and direct it towards our enemies." Annie remained quiet for a few seconds as she processed the implications of such affair.

"Sounds like blood will be spilled" she said grimly.

"Probably" Eren agreed. "But it's necessary."

"Of course you would say that" a shaky voice came from behind them. Eren turned to find Historia less than a meter away from his face. "Everyone noticed a change in you after your trial. We just didn't know what to of it, so we kept quiet. But know I know what you are!" Eren dug his hands in his pockets and buried his emotions far from his face, a part of him wanted to know where would Historia go. Angry tears were forming at the corners of her eyes. "To you this is all a game, all a board and everyone just a piece for you to move or discard at a whim! You're just devious! A monster is what you are! Do you even care about anyone in here?! All of them are just pawns in—"

Her rant was cut short as Eren grabbed Historia by the neck and slammed her against the table just behind her. A loud thudding sound was everything heard in the room all of a sudden. Rage was quickly replaced for fear as his eyes bore into hers. The now mismatching color of his eyes gave his gaze a strange, uneven quality to it. But it was the complete lack of emotion in his facial features that truly unnerved her. Like strangling her was nothing for him.

"You have no idea who I am" he said evenly, almost in a whisper, as his hold on her neck tighten. "Matter of fact, you know nothing about anything." A hand took a tight hold of his forearm, he looked up to find Annie glaring at him. The outrage that burst in him quickly subsiding as he was pulled back to the present. He let go of Historia just as footsteps were heard coming down the stairs. Annie went to help Historia as Eren walked to the door.

Jean arrived to see the aftermath. "Hey, what happened here?!" he exclaimed.

"I told Ymir what would happen if she antagonized us" Eren said as he turned and locked eyes with Historia, "and my word isn't worth shit if I don't follow through with it. But do not say that I don't care for you fuckers. I'm doing this only for you." With that he made for the door, he really needed a smoke right now.

"Hey, I asked you something!" Jean said trying to stop him only to be met the door slamming on him. For a second, Jean thought about going after him, but decided against it with a sigh. "What is up with him?" he asked as he moved to the two still present.

"Don't mind him" said Annie as she helped Historia to a chair. "He's just under a lot of stress. And is just trying to cope."

"You should know a lot about that, then" he mentioned off-handedly. That comment stung to Annie more than it should have. She looked at Jean and realized the full implications of siding with those just a couple of months ago she was actively conspiring against. _I might as well _she said to herself as she braced for what would happen next.

"Jean" she said, attracting his attention. "I remember you being friends with Marco, correct?"

A cold shiver ran down his spine at the mention of Marco's name. "What does that have to do with anything?!" he asked defensively.

"Quite a bit, actually" Annie said ominously. "Do you want to know what exactly happened to him?" The atmosphere of the room grew tense once more. Jean's silent frown stared at her as she continued. "It's no secret now that Reiner, Berthold and I were behind the fall of Wall Maria and the attack at Trost. At some point, those two were discussing I don't know what about the mission when poor Marco overheard them. He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time…" The frown in Jean's face continued to deepen as the tale went on. "Reiner seized him and told me to take his gear from him… And after we left… I can still hear his cries for help, you know? It's not something you forget about. Marco is dead because of us, and it wasn't an accident, not really."

Jean's hands clenched into fists and his anger was emanating from his features. Annie kept her arms down, accepting what was coming. She did not process the moment the punch connected, just her landing on the floor.

"You bitch!" Jean was now screaming at the top of his lungs. "You fucking traitors! You come in here, fuck everything up, kill Marco and tell it as it was nothing?!" He went to continue beating Annie, and it would have been a pretty rough one considering his skills and his palpable rage. If it had not been for Historia getting in the way, that is.

"Out of the way Krista!" Jean shouted. "Let me give her what she deserves!" It was almost comical seeing the small Historia standing in the way of Jean, but Annie could only stare wide-eyed to see her step in when just minutes ago she was in Jean's position.

"It won't bring him back, will it Jean?" Historia said, dry tears from her own outburst still firm on her cheeks.

"Save me that!" Jean screamed. All the shouting must have woken up everyone else, because by then Connie, Sasha and Armin had arrived and quickly took a hold of him.

"Woah, Jean calm down!" said Sasha as she struggled with him. In spite of all his rage, Jean was quickly pinned down by her and Connie. Annie took that time to get on her feet and check where the punch landed. Her right eye was getting swollen and would be black in a few minutes. She thought about healing it, but decided against it for the moment. She moved over where Historia was shakily standing, putting a hand on her shoulders. Without a word she moved for the door.

"What happened here, Annie?" asked Armin as he approached her.

"People need to vent sometimes" she answered, adding a shrug. A few meters over, Connie and Sasha were trying to move the still struggling Jean.

"I will never forgive you, Annie!" he cried.

"That's okay" she replied. "I don't want your forgiveness. It is my own I'm after." She went to the door, turning before leaving to exchange glances with Historia. "For what it's worth, I'm sorry. For everything." Annie then left the cabin.

With the clear moonlight shining it was not very difficult finding Eren. He was sitting at the edges of the surrounding woods, smoking a cigarette. The other arm was on his knee and his gaze was looking at nothing in particular.

"Why are you here, Annie?" Eren asked without looking at her.

"You're going to catch a cold out here" she said. He turned to face her.

"But come on. These views" he said dryly motioning to the trees ahead. He then noticed Annie had a black eye. "What did I miss?"

"I told Jean about Marco" she answered as she stood beside him.

"Good thing you told him early" Eren nodded mindlessly. "If you prove yourself in his eyes, he'll get over it eventually. He has a kind heart, after all." Annie looked around as she thought of that possibility.

"You think so?"

"Hey, he did sacrifice himself so I could escape prison" he answered with a dry laugh.

For a moment, no sound could be heard. Not their voices, not their breaths, not even the crickets uttered a single sound. It seemed like time had stood still. It was as if the world had been put on halt as these two were contemplating what exactly had happened. The most interesting part is that, for both of them, the world was absolutely different not that long ago. And yet, it all felt so distant but could still see it, clear and blurry at the same time.

"Damn her" Eren broke the silent, his voice bitter. "Who is she to question my motives? She hasn't lived even half of what I've gone through; and she thinks she can tell me who I am!" he sighed and turned to look at Annie. "I didn't even ask for this, for crying out loud! I wanted to fucking die! I'm just trying to get the best outcome, and been failing miserably at that by the way."

Annie sat down behind Eren, leaning her back on his. "So I'm a miserable failure then?" she asked.

"You know what I mean!" he retorted, his tone getting more bitter. He sighed. "You may just be the only saving grace so far. It's just that… I hate I can't be honest with them." Annie could not see his face, but Eren's voice changed, now full with melancholy. "And I can't be honest with them because… a part of me doesn't recognize them as… them. I can barely look at you in the eyes. Because when I do, I don't see you here before me… I just see your corpses… Yours, Connie's, Sasha's… Jean's… Armin." Eren held back a sob and looked up. "… And Mikasa."

He looked down to his hands. "If I put them in a certain way, I can still see her lifeless body in my arms" he sniffed. "Her blood in my palms and that empty look on her eyes… I don't think I will ever forget that."

"Eren, do you love her?" she asked quietly. It took him a few seconds before Annie felt Eren's head nodding.

"I only wanted to keep her safe" he said longingly. "All I did was to make sure she could live a long, happy life… When I knew I was going down a path she couldn't follow, I pushed her and Armin, I tried to break our bonds. And all for nothing! She fucking died anyway!" Tears were sliding down his eyes as the memories flooded back from the corner he had shoved them so long ago, as they often did. He believed he had come to terms with the fact that the ones he loves were death, and that he was a relique from a past era, but him ending up in this new world had thrown him and his sentiments for a loop.

"And now she thinks I'm a deceiver monster…" he muttered. "And she may be right."

"So what? What would you think she would've thought of you had things gone your way in your first life?" Annie retorted, and sighed against Eren's silence. "You truly never think of the taste you leave on people's mouths, Yeager. Look, if you truly are doing this for us, then it shouldn't matter if you're an asshole about it. If you love her, you got to mend that falling out with her."

Eren gave a dry laugh at that. "That's easier said than done"

"Then, don't do it. I'm not your mother, Eren. I cannot make you do anything even if I wanted to. Also, Mikasa used to be obsessed with you; even with all this, it shouldn't take too much to heal it up. Maybe it won't go back to what it was, but it's possible. Besides" she said, a small smile crossing her lips, "you're supposed to be the brains of this duo. You can come up with something." Annie could feel his breath being heavy before stabilizing.

"I guess" he said after some time, still uneasy. Annie leaned her head back so it rests on Eren's neck.

"Someone as stubborn as you can find a way. And don't worry, I'll be with you every step of the way. I kind of have to, anyway." That made him chuckle. For a moment the tension was eased as the two renegades were sitting as the smell of cigarettes and damp grass went around them. A rare serene moment rose as Annie's mind wandered about her situation. This send her to remember her father and Marley in general.

"Hey" she said as she closed her eyes, Eren hummed to confirm she had his attention. "Tell me about Marley."

Eren raised an eyebrow at the strange request. "In what sense?" he asked.

"It's just that… I never saw much of anything in my time there, the internment zones could barely be considered Marley, now that I think about it. And, well, you spent a few years tumbling around there. I'd like to hear about it."

"Okay" Eren said as he started organizing his thoughts. "For starters, it's big" he said and Annie laughed.

"No shit" she commented.

"But you really got no idea how massive it is. It would take more than a year to go from one end of the place to the next." Eren and Annie remained there, exchanging stories and anecdotes about the place that was their enemy for what felt like hours. His worries and stress laid down throughout, instead there was a nostalgic sentiment about his time in Marley, the people he met there, the places he went to, and the adventures he got himself into. The plans could lay aside for one night.

* * *

It was well into the night that Reiner and Berthold reached Shiganshina. There was an eerie silence to the ghost town as they crossed their empty streets under the pale moonlight. Their trip since escaping the scouts was silent for the most part and uninterrupted, as neither of the two felt willing to discuss what went down.

The loss of Ymir had been a giant disappointment to them. For one, having the Jaw Titan permanently lost to Paradis would lead to a harsh punishment back in Marley. And though they did not admit it, the loss of someone who understood them was painful to watch.

But the real gut-punch had been Annie's betrayal. The knowledge that one of their fellow warriors, one of their fellow friends had switched sides and now actively antagonized them was heartbreaking. In one of their small stops in their travel here, the two reasoned that Annie must have been captured at some point while they were isolated in that fort near Wall Sina.

Reiner was aware that the punch had been harder for Berthold, his love for their former comrade was an open secret amongst them, even before coming to the island. Now his timid friend was even more quiet and apathetic than before. It could not last, Reiner knew, as sooner or later they would have to fight her and the islanders again, but for the moment he let Berthold be.

As the two reached the outer gate, they were greeted by an unexpected sign. A young girl of her age, short in stature, disheveled black hair held in a messy ponytail behind, and naturally relaxed eyes. She was wearing a white uniform with a red band around her left arm. Reiner and Berthold's eyes widened as they recognized the woman in front of them.

"Pieck!" Reiner exclaimed, their fellow warrior smiled and waved her hand saying hello. "You're here too?"

"General staff is growing restless over the lack of updates in the mission" explained Pieck. "They forced Magath to send us both here to provide support." She noticed the shocked look on their faces and continued. "I stayed here while war chief Zeke went ahead to seize up the resistance we should expect here. Interesting place, this island" she added.

"Zeke is already here?" asked Reiner. Pieck noticed the change in attitude in the blond warrior, no longer was he the meek and fanatically devoted little child she had met, but decided to save the commentary.

"He's waiting for us at the top" she said pointing upwards as she moved to a wooden platform, Reiner and Bert close behind. They took the barely functioning elevator to meet with the large figure of the Beast Titan waiting for them at the top.

"I suppose that you coming here is not a good sign as to the progress of the operation" spoke the large shaggy haired titan. A cold sweat ran down Reiner's neck as he approached.

"Our cover was blown" he said, purposefully not mentioning how that had happened. "We had to retreat."

A low hum came from the titan before its nape blew open, from which emerged the war chief and their direct superior, Zeke Yeager.

"That is a troublesome development" said the older warrior as he scaled down the back of his titan. As he landed on the hardened surface of the wall, he walked up to them. Pieck moved forward and gave him a jacket to cover his bare torso. "Please, seat down and give a report of the mission so far."

The warriors sat down, with Pieck laying on her stomach and resting her head on her folded arms, and Reiner decided to retell what had happened since they arrived on the island, with Berthold adding in at some points. By the end of their tale, Pieck was looking conflicted. She and Annie had been not exactly closed but she did consider her a friend. She was saddened by the news, but she had to keep her head on the mission. Zeke was scratching his ear thinking.

"The loss of the Jaw Titan and the betrayal of the Female will not be lightly received back home" he said. "The Warrior program is under fired as other departments are arguing to divert our funding to them as technology continues to develop. If news of this gets out, it'll only harden their resolve to see us run to the ground. We cannot return to Marley with these results, best case scenario, we'll be severely disciplined. Worst case, we'll be replaced at the spot."

"So we got to continue on as is?" asked Berthold. Zeke nodded. "It's going to be very difficult."

"We're outnumbered and the soldiers of Paradis are more skilled than anticipated" agreed Reiner.

"Not mentioning that Annie's defection, most of our secrets will be spilled to them" added Pieck. "We need to be careful from here on."

"Absolutely" said Zeke. "We're on a tightrope right now. We cannot allow ourselves the luxury of unnecessary risks. Which leads us to what are we going to do from here."

The other warriors thought about it for some moments before Pieck spoke up.

"You mentioned that they have the intent to reclaim this wall, right Reiner?" He nodded. "So, that they will eventually come here."

It dawned on Zeke where she was going. "And when they do, we'll be ready."

Pieck nodded. "We cannot return to Marley because they'll lambast us with our results so far, and we cannot take the fight to them because we don't know have the information to make a careful plan. That really only leaves us with staying here and defend ourselves when they come for us."

Zeke turned to Reiner. "Do you have an idea when are they coming here?" he asked. Reiner shook his head.

"The Survey Corps was planning to reclaim as soon as they can, but then again they're not seen positively by the rest of the population. There's no telling how much will it take for them to come, or in what strength outside of what I told." Berthold nodded as Reiner explained. Zeke took in the information.

"That means we got to fortify this place as soon as we can" he affirmed as he stood up. "Reiner, Berthold, tomorrow we're going to start the works" they nodded. "Pieck, you'll be our eyes and ears in the meanwhile. You let us know when they are coming, and in what numbers." She nodded.

"Of course, war chief" she said as she began to stand up. "I'll start scouting in the morning."

"I also have a special assignment for you" Zeke told her. "This will require discretion and swiftness, but if successful, it will help in balancing the scale to our favor." As he explained what she would do, Pieck paid close attention and a frown appeared on her face. It was a difficult thing she was being asked, she sighed internally and nodded.

* * *

**And this would be it for this chapter. Quite a bit happening in here and there were a few things I was planning on adding but decided to cut them in the end.**

**So, the Uprising Arc is going to be fairly different, as I would presume that with the knowledge given by Eren, the SC would've been able to plan out things differently, if anything just for the mere fact of the difference in stakes going on. That and Annie's trial having pulled the wool from people's eyes would've caused immediate backlash, and wanted to reflect that. Also, I wanted this chapter to make a bit of a highlight into Eren's psychology, as so far it has been understated, and also I wanted to start developing the dynamics between him and Annie. Also I'm keeping the actions of the Warriors essentially equal to those in canon, while also adding stakes to their situation (that's the whole idea of different departments of Marley's military competing with them, as it adds realism and makes sense given the context they're in). Originally, I was thinking of taking them into a different route, but decided against it because it doesn't make sense for the characters, given their current position.**

**ALSO: I will be taking a small break from this, as I also want to add to my other story 'Starless' and have a few projects outside of fanfiction going on. So it will take a while for the next update. Hopefully not too much, but so far it's a bit hard to tell.**

**In any case, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. And as always, all reviews are welcomed and appreciated!**


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